Desperate times call for desperate measures...

Low water continues to prevail in north AL as well as the rest of the Southeast, but again this weekend we managed to find a little and get in our boats. My family was visiting, but it was my birthday weekend and I was determined to get some boating in. Friday my parents, Shannon and I drove over to Sand Mountian mid morning as the temp hovered at 31 degrees to run the Mill Slide on Town Creek and then to make a detailed scout of High Falls for a future huck. Town Creek was running a wopping 103 CFS, but the slide was still fun and we ran it over; enjoying speeding down its 150' length and off the 3' kicker at the end. I was enjoying being in a short playboat and often found myself able to over boof it and land stern first. It really made me look forward to the release of the Large Ammo so I can have a super short and playful creeker.

We were all smiles, despite the cold, at getting out and enjoying some boating no mater how breif.

After departing the Mill Slide we drove down to the regular Town Creek put-in to scout the massive 35' tall High Falls. In this picture you can see all three of the lines on this drop... the more verticle line is on the left, the middle line is barely wet at this level, and the cascade line is on the right.

For anyone who has never been to High Falls the most unique feature is the huge stone arch in front of the river right side of the falls. Here are some pics from the river right lip.

Saturday Joey and I headed down the middle section of LRC at the lowest level we have ever done it and I won't do it again. The bridge gauge was reading about -9.5" and we put on at Upper Two and paddled down to Powell Trail in playboats. Having found it fairly fun and runnable the previous week at -8.5" we couldn't beleive the difference and how much lower the water actually felt. The previous weekend we had found runnable channels, fun boofs, splats, and even some holes for spins and cartwheels, but not this weekend. Anyway, at least we know and I've finally established my personal minimum level for every section of LRC: Powell to Canyon Mouth down to 3", Suicide down to -5", and Upper Two to Powell down to -8.5". Good to go.

Until Next Time...

-adam