Little East Fork of the Pigeon - The Bathtubs (11/11/22) скачать в хорошем качестве

Little East Fork of the Pigeon - The Bathtubs (11/11/22)

Microcreeking is a small cranny of the already modest sport of whitewater kayaking. If you've ever been hiking down a trail next to a steep creek that is oftentimes more rock than water, chances are it's just begging to be kayaked by some idiot out there. Rushing down the flanks of Cold Mountain in the Balsams region of the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina lies one such creek, the fabled Bathtubs section of the Little East Fork of the Pigeon. I've been looking to get on this gem since before I was a kayaker. I've hiked along the Art Loeb Trail from Camp Daniel Boone to Brevard through the Shining Rock Wilderness many times during my youth and was always impressed by the features on this creek. When I found out it had been kayaked, I put it towards the top of my list. The thing about microcreeking in NC is that it is horribly difficult to find the right flows for an enjoyable decent. These small headwater tributaries are equally as prone to flashing as they are to dropping out--FAST! You need to know how to assess the available hydrologic data to make a good decision and be really lucky at the same time. After checking the rain and river gauges in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Nicole, I called Chris Harjes at 10am and convinced him to give it a shot with me with some backup plans if it was too high or too low. He couldn't get away until noon so the jangle began. A short 45 minute drive from Asheville brings you to a bridge at the end of the dirt road owned by Camp Daniel Boone, where you park your car and cross a bridge going over the Little East Fork to begin your 2-mile hike upstream. When we got there, the bridge was underwater by about a foot and a half, making the bridge crossing very unnerving. We took our time getting ready because Harjes had a couple friends joining us, Mike Bones and Rick Mountjoy. We decided to spend time scouting for wood on the way up to give them time to catch up. Flows were dropping fast as we made our ascent up the trail. After our scouting mission, we had 4 log portages and 5 log ducks to memorize as we pieced our way back downstream. This is in addition to a number of steep, substantial drops in the upper reaches and a continuous maze of boulders in the lower section. One of my favorite parts about kayaking is the memorization skills you need in order to piece together a sequence of moves, in this case ~50. It really pushes your mind in a way that is difficult to find in other aspects of life. We reached a big slide (the first one in this video) with a tight exit. Harjes, who had paddled this section several times before, said that the exit had changed dramatically since the massive floods in the area of August, 2021. We went a little farther upstream to discover a super steep section that was unfortunately chock full of wood and decided to put on above the big slide. By the time we took out by our cars, the water was about 2.5 ft below the bridge, filling the culverts beneath about half full. Crazy how fast it dropped! The video provides a bit of the character of the run at these flows, and has a bit of beatering involved. Hope you enjoy!