personal first d's

[fallingwater]

been a few good weeks of water in the SE, last wednesday got two laps on johnnies in AL, thursday got cane creek in TN, friday got jones in NE AL
Back in AR now for a few weeks. looking to be a good winter/spring.
today got brush creek on the south side of lake nimrod, put in on county rd 9 at a low water crossing and took out on brush creek rd, had about 1/2 in water going over the put in slab and would consider this minimum, if the water is high the best option would be to take out on county rd 300 and to get laps, most of the gradient is in this section anyhow, good fun class 2-3. at higher water would be 3+ and very continious..this section should run real high and still be fun.
the section below county rd 300 still had good flow, class 2 shoals, and only a few long pools. beautiful ouachita stream!!
was wondering if anyone has been on this creek before

[Cowper]

I think all of the streams you might first notice from the roadside (including any of the many dirt roads that criss-cross that area) have likely been run by Billy Williams and/or Chris Anderson. Billy is self employed and doesn't spend a lot of time on the internet, so I'll have to try to contact him with your question. I'll try to do that within the next few days.

Chris Anderson no longer lives in this area, and like Billy is a great guy to paddle with. But Chris enjoyed doing first D's and then not telling anybody about it except his closest friends; for whatever reason he didn't believe in "claiming" first D's on the internet, so I don't know if there is even a record of his runs other than in the collective memory of his closest friends. But if Chris ran it, Billy will probably know about it.

I just got to run three "new to me" stretches of creek in that area yesterday; had a blast with 7 of us participating on Trace Creek, Bear Creek, and Little Cedar. Level was near the minimum, but we still had fun and a great day on the water. If anyone heads out to run Little Cedar, let me just warn you that the recent snow-ice storm has put a lot of brush and smaller wood in the river, so be VERY careful. At the low volume we had, mishaps were more amusing than life-threatening, but with more water, I could see things getting a lot more serious. But we knew we were having fun when all the "tips" given by old-timers quit being about how to paddle, how to catch eddies, how to brace, etc, and instead became things like "how to angle your paddle into the brush so that the limbs are deflected up over your head", "how to hit logs fast enough to jump them, instead of being stuffed under them", and other low-volume creeking techniques.

[BGW]

Chris and I looked at Brushy, Chris hiked it we talked about it but as far as I know he didn't ever run it, but thats not to say he didn't either. I thought it might not be open enough, so I didn't go back, sounds like it was good, to go. I believe you may an Ar. first. BGW

[fallingwater]

got it again yesterday at a medium flow and the rapids got better, another 100 or 200 cfs and it may start to wash out. better than trace and bear!!