New Life and Paddling Motto:

[mgood]

You're not a man until you paddle the Tellico Ledges.

We got to hit it up Friday with the level at 1.9. Awesome time. I highly suggest it.

[A Savage spanke]

What CFS is that? I got to run it at 1,000 and 500 over Christmas break (assuming the Tellico next to the Ocoee in TN). Hell of a fun run!

[Renee H]

I think 1.9 is around 300 cfs, but someone said you can run it all the way down to 1.5.

[RomanLA]

I was looking at that in my "North Carolina Rivers & Creeks" book the other night. There's finally a few things in there, besides the Nanty that I think I could run! lol

p.s. It suggests 250+.

[Fish]

It's great at nearly any level. I've run it as low as 150 cfs when we didn't have anything better to do that day, and was surprised that it still boated pretty well, if you don't mind losing a little plastic. :) I've run it up to about 1600 cfs, which is a very different experience. In fact, it's not the same river at 750 cfs that it is at 500 cfs!

Tellico is probably my favorite run in the Southeast!

- Fish

[depic]

baby falls, daper wiper, and jared's knee = big fun . and the view of bald river falls -beautiful

[jjones03]

i ran diaper wiper backwards haha

[JGoodwin]

Trip Report 4/3 - 4/5 Tellico and Ocoee

Usual late start on Thursday night with Micah and I headed for his raft training on the Ocoee. Drive all night and decide to pull into Little River Canyon to have a look right at daylight on Friday. That's one impressive canyon and looked like huge water since they had been pounded the night before.

Drive on in to the Tellico to get a run in. Meet up with our new friends Ryan Chapman, Laura Dillon and Christine Blumberg from the Atlanta Canoe Club at the take out and they agree to show us the lines. We set shuttle and looked the run over as it's all roadside. Good group of paddlers with similar skill levels and 3 of us with river rescue training. Micah's pumped to get going and starts playing as soon as he hits the water. Ryan has the best knowledge of the river and he leads. The rest of the group heads out and I paddle sweep.

What a fun river! Quick moves and nice sized drops with mostly soft landings. Christine flips and gets some deep gouges on her full face helmet. Makes all of us a little more cautious and everyone watches out for the others. I flip in a no name and lose count of how many rocks I bounce off of before I bail. Grab boat, paddle and stand up. Laura proves she's the best at tossing a line to get me over to the bank. No harm, no foul. Baby Falls looks great and we get good advice on the lines. Christine films and the rest of us take it on. Fairly clean runs by all and no real carnage even through diaper wiper immediately below.

We scout Jared's Knee and discuss the lines. Ryan says that "Whatever you do don't get in the undercut. That's one bad place to be." He leads, Christine films and everyone gets through although I get roll practice at the end. Search youtube for tellico ledges 4-3-09 and the other videos of Baby Falls and Jared's Knee. Maybe my hotdog boater can figure out how to link them on this thread.

Off the river and eat at Good Fellas in Copperhill. Head for Eagle Adventures where Micah is training and crash by 9:00. Next morning I leave him and head over to the Ocoee. At the put in a guy that looks slightly familiar walks up and starts talking about my boat. Turns out it Druse Ellis (spelling?) from good ol' Arkansas. He and his wife Katlyn are nice enough to guide me down and give advice when needed on the lines. I have an off day and Druse is nursing a hurt shoulder but Katlyn plays enough for everyone. Someone send me their email so I can thank them again.

Sunday Micah is through training early in the afternoon including a 5 minute surf in a raft at Hollywood Hole. Looks like he passed so they let him grab his kayak and put him in below Double Suck with handpaddles. He has fun but does bounce off a few rocks at Tablesaw before rolling up. I'm ahead of him and running with Chris and James from Chattanooga. My lines and eddy turns are much better and the river is a blast with 70 degree temps.

We head out, crash in Jackson, MS for a few hours with Brad and coast into Shreveport about 45 minutes before Micah has class. Great weekend and we're all ready to do it again.

Joe Goodwin

[Cowper]

So many questions...

1) Why would Renee want to be a man?

2) Do you think you're "man" enough to play "follow the leader" with Tracy T?

3) Do any of the men here wish Renee, Tracy, or (insert personal favorite female paddler name here) were men?

[A Savage spanke]

who said rennee wnted to be a man?

Dru Ellis Is AWESOME, I love boating with that guy. One of the people I'm stoked to see when I get to hed back out there.

[Jeremy M]

I will only answer one of Cowper's questions. That being number 2 and the answer being a negative. I will hike and video, but to play "follow the leader"? No.

[Boofaholic]

# 2 is a negatory! Thinking I could play follow the leader w/ Tracy has humbled me before and Im sure it will again. After last summer she told us to change our choice WORD for wimpin out to the male sexual organ instead of the female version unless we started firin it up.And I guess Kyle wouldnt appreciate her being a man, but it sure would make me feel so much better when she's stylin out and Im gettin !

[David Blaske]

No one has mentioned running the last part of Bald River Falls. If you're on the Tellico it is definitely worth the diversion!! You haul your boat up river left (right side looking up from bridge) to the lower ledge, lower your boat (and yourself) to the obvious ledge, take a couple strokes , and run the drop. Someone can correct me - its about 25 - 30 foot drop with a soft landing. I've done it many times with no problems and much fun. Check out the AW page for Bald River and there are many pictures and video of paddlers running the drop.

[A Savage spanke]

ya I posted a video that has me running it at the very end. Its somewhere around here

found it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhDKtuTjSBo" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
go to the very end

[Renee H]

What was the level that day on the Tellico?