AlabamaWhitewater.com

[Mark T]

JC and I woke at the Yell cabin in Tn Early Sunday Morning and decided there was enough water to roll to LRC.
We arrived to a parking lot full of 1st timers wanting to see the canyon. The level was 0". This is a level that is technical and requires elbow pads : )

The group was 11 strong. Of the 11, 3 had paddled the canyon before. JC and I were the veterans. WE ran shuttle to the chair lift take out, showing the new guys the short cuts.

Once back at the Suicide Put In we all geared up and hiked in. I was amazed at the explosion of the fall colors. For me it was a day of closure, dealing with the accident that occurred a week prior. So the Fall colors accented the day to the positive.

As always mammoth rock gave me a small problem at the bottom. No worries though, no blood and skin loss. All of the group made it through with out incident...

Terminal Eddy at 0" is VERY bad. If you are unaware the undercut rock on the bottom left gets 90% of the water flow at this level. Make sure that your angle is at 1 to 1:30 and be paddling to avoid an issue. After pointing out the dangers to the group, we all had a great line through.

Avalanche has a LOG in the Right to Center line. It does not look like a huge problem to remove BUT currently it is still there. We all took the left line on the 1st drop. The second drop was boney but still good. BEWARE OF THE SIEVE IN THE RUN OUT BELOW........ This spot is DANGEROUS!!!!! 2 years ago, I pulled a fellow peddler out. There is a rock just downstream of the 2nd drop ( about 20 feet ) that has a small rock just in front that causes the sieve. The lower the water the larger the problem. PLEASE PAY ATTENTION... You are not out of danger until AFTER you clear this spot..... We stationed a person on the rock just in case... Everyone's lines were good...

CABLE FALLS was run on the river Left side. Again the lower the water the harder this drop gets. We all had good line on the top. Saw an interesting line, where a right stoke made the person boof on to the rock to the left... I don't recommend it but it worked for the boater... BEWARE OF POCKET / SIEVE on the second drop. If you remember the current pulls you left as you try to point to the end of the rock to boof. At 0" and higher on the far right side of the boof rock there is a pot hole/pocket/sieve in this rock that is perfect for a boat to go in forward or backwards. Looks like a boat will just fit in but not pass through, IF and when this occurs ropes and carabineers will need to be deployed.... BE AWARE...

PINBALL..... There is some new wood at the top center. It will be interesting to see if the log will pass through with out affecting the main line. Again heads up....

We all got out and scouted the drop, pointed out a couple of different lines. Most all decided to run it. I felt it necessary to show the guys the patented Double Papa Pump technique. In addition to the DPP, I had to throw in a memorial splat for my boy Shane.

All of the group was super stoked to have had such a great time on the Suicide section...

We all took a break and then headed downstream to the upper 2. No new wood or obstructions to report. We showed the normal lines through the rapids... Fun was had by all..

The Hike out was soooooo much fun....

Can't wait to go back and blow it up again....

Peace
Mark T