Clay's Spring Deluge report 1: Rock Island

Photos

By Clay Wright

Just after our Rock Island crew departed for the events of summer,
the rains came down for days giving us the wettest week I’ve seen in
years!

While most SE creekers rallied the roads in search of perfect flows,
I stayed home to take some shots of the gorge as the water just got
bigger and bigger. One day I got that 60k run on Seive City –
sneaking far left at the top before boofing back in at the bottom and
rallying the waves all the way down to the park. The next day .. with
even MORE rain on top of that 4.5” rain, the levels hit 89,000!

Some highlights :

The dam with all the gates open shaking the earth like the
Summersville Dam used to, and the massive ‘Braver Wave’ at a suicidal
level.
The falls – looking about 10′ high with all those trees that were
chundering around at 60k washing out at the higher flow.
The mist off the Seive City rapid – making it hard to see the waves
down there from the overlook … that ’tilled earth’ smell so strong
all around.
Wondering if the seal launch rock was still down there somewhere.
Seeing that the water had filled in the entire ‘room’ of the left
eddy by the hole .. 15 to 20′ above our heads normally.
The exploding ‘thing’ Brave Wave had become … hopefully ripping out
all the Poison Ivy on the hike up but leaving the rocks that form the
wave … hope hope!!!

I’m heading off to see the results as the water drops down below
10,000 today after spending the week of flood creeking in
Chattanooga. More on that soon!

Clay