Vacationing in Asheville

[Eric Esche]

Depends on what you call park and play and what the water levels are like. Chattooga has Bull Sluice rapid just up stream of the HW76 bridge parking lot on the South Carolina side. Folks surf the hole there at all levels. Anything above 1.7 on the HW76 gauge is doable by some, but the hole starts getting sticky above 2.2 and at 10.3 feet, it can tear a canoe in half, (from personal experience - also lost a Hollowform there once, and waranteed 6 Hollowforms doing enders on the Chattooga, before they stopped replacing them.)

I hear there are trails there that some mountain bikers like. I helped cut nearly 20 miles of horseback trails there. USFS office in Clayton,GA would have info on the trail systems. USFS office for the Oconee NF in Westminster SC for the South Carolina side. Rest of stuff on the Chattooga requires a much longer walk in or floating a section to get to the big stuff.

If water is somehow over 2.7 on 76 gauge, Consider Overflow creek or the Chauga runs for rarely run jewels, but beware that rivers over there tend to flash. Best to run them falling if you are not intimate with their watersheds or with a local.

If you want to brouse some dated guide books, I've got Streams of Tennessee volume one, A Paddler's Guide to Northern Georgia, and Appalachian Whitewater, Volume II and would loan them to you to take with you in case of rain.

Bad news is they are in a drought over there right now.

When we did not take visitors on the Chattooga, we often took them to see the Biltmore estate and botanical gardens. Been there in all 4 seasons and always worth the tour price.

Eric Esche