TWO NEW GAGES FOR SOUTH FORK LITTLE RED

[CAPTAIN ALEVE]

For several years the only gage that was available on the South Fork of the Little Red River was the one in Clinton, about 20 miles downstream of where the whitewater is. We paddle in the vicinity of the Gulf Mountain Wildlife Management Area which the state leased for gas exploration. In order to monitor the effects of the drilling on the river, three new gages have been installed. They record a lot of information besides the gage height in order to see what happens to the water quality. Two of the three new gages will be very useful to paddlers:

Near Low Gap Road which is usually a take-out point for the 3.5 mile run from "The Culverts" is the new SFLR gage

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?site_no=07075270" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Our usual put-in at Slick Rock Road for the run down to "The Culverts" is near this new gage on the SFLR:

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ar/nwis/nwism ... o=07075250" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



On Tuesday when Steve and I paddled from Slick Rock Road to "The Culverts", the water level was:
Clinton - 5.76
Low Gap Road - 3.03
Slick Rock Road - 5.43

That is pretty close to the lowest level you might want to paddle that 7 mile stretch. You could do it at a lower level without walking, maybe another 0.1 feet less on the Slick Rock Road gage. I am going to process a helmet cam video of our outing that will show you what the water was like at the readings above. I'll post a notice here when the video is up.

Mike Coogan, alias Captain Aleve

[CAPTAIN ALEVE]

I edited the above post to show that the lowest level you can make it down this section of the SFLR would be only 0.1 feet lower than the level we paddled it (on the Slick Rock Road gage). Here's the link to the brief highlights video of the run we made:

http://vimeo.com/67844960" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Mike Coogan, alias Captain Aleve

[Cowper]

Thanks Captain! I knew the gages were there, but had not had the pleasure of getting on the SF since their installation to get a handle on what the minimum levels would be, so this is very helpful.

I would strongly suggest that we all try to start using these gages as our main reference - I've found the Clinton gage to be only marginally useful - the day the river is best, it tells you it hasn't come up enough; then 12 to 24 hours later it tells you the river is too high for mild mannered folk when in fact it has just fallen out to optimum levels. No More!

I've even used the rain gages on these stations to get better insights into what is happening at another creek just over the ridge - Richland! Since the loss of the Buffalo RIver watershed gages, we've had to rely a bit too much on just the radar precip estimates, so any extra data is appreciated.