Beech Creek May 2, 2009
Posted: Tue May 05, 2009 7:30 am
Saturday loaded up at the Boxley bridge. The painted gauge for Beech didn't show much over 3 feet, but it had been raining.
We had a pretty happy group for the drag into the gorge.
I have two rings of poison ivy around my ankles now. The trail down wasn't too bad. The ice storm damage is mostly at the top. We were also blessed to have shuttle drivers who graciously saved us a bunch of time! Thanks guys!
The going was rough in the first mile. The very first drop is the put in. Its called "Wake Up" It ate a couple of the group. The first mile is basically one continuous rapid known as the "Jungle Gym"
This shot illustrates the hampered visibility of low hanging limbs. We also had some wood in the creek too. This is Joe running this unnamed rapid.
I needed a rest and saw this creek on river right and pulled in for a break.
Group photo from left to right. Steve McBee and Lance Jones. On the boulder back row Kyle Bogard, Joe and Amy, Tracy Tate. Front row Pat Zimmerman and Riley Frakes.
Unfortunately Beech at this level does not lend itself to much photo taking. That's probably why there aren't many pictures of the other unamed drops. This is Steve McBee at the scout from creek right looking into Beech Falls. In between the previous photo and this one we had covered 3 or 4 miles of creek running 6 or 7 other Class IV drops that included a falls, multiple boulder garden drops, White Lightening, and Beech Ball. [BTW wood on left at Beech Ball the right line is clean.]
Pat Zimmerman running the correct line just off the volkswagon boulder to hit the slab and stay far left of the infamous rooster tail at Beech Falls. He cleaned it as did everyone else.
One of the most photogenic waterfalls along the creek. The lower section of the creek has a waterfall coming into almost every quarter mile. They are all beautiful. This one exceptionally so.
The umbrella magnolias were in full bloom. I paddled to a low hanging limb to smell the bloom. I decided to pick it and bring home to Belinda so I stuffed in the back of my life jacket for that last mile of calmer water to the takeout.
BETA: Beech on the painted gauge was just below 3 feet at 11AM. It had been raining the previous two hours with heavier bits of rain onto of a soaked system. By the time we ran shuttle to the top and did the drag down for put on it was noon. At the takeout at 6PM the gauge read just above 4 feet. In the 6 hour period we were on the creek it had risen from 3 up to 6 and back down to 4. That dramatic fluctuation in a very short time period is normal for Beech. A run on Beech is very hard to catch because this creek drains itself so fast. We were lucky to have daylight and relatively warm temperatures. The upper two miles with leaves on is very poor visibility. We were putting on the creek at what I judged to be the peak of its surge. We bank scouted 3 or 4 times. We had one mandatory portage at "Coming Home" there is wood in it. All other wood we encountered was visible above and we could slide through, around or over.
[In my loose memory of Beech lore I believe Amy joined an exclusive ladies club of Tracy Tate and Jonna Hussey both who'd run it before as the only three ladies to my knowledge that have run Beech. Its a classy club.]
That was Day One of my tripple crown for this spring. Day Two included ELFB, and Richland yesterday. There are tons of other stories and reports about the Beech run. I left out most of the highlights so I hope my trip mates will fill in the rest of the details.
We had a pretty happy group for the drag into the gorge.
I have two rings of poison ivy around my ankles now. The trail down wasn't too bad. The ice storm damage is mostly at the top. We were also blessed to have shuttle drivers who graciously saved us a bunch of time! Thanks guys!
The going was rough in the first mile. The very first drop is the put in. Its called "Wake Up" It ate a couple of the group. The first mile is basically one continuous rapid known as the "Jungle Gym"
This shot illustrates the hampered visibility of low hanging limbs. We also had some wood in the creek too. This is Joe running this unnamed rapid.
I needed a rest and saw this creek on river right and pulled in for a break.
Group photo from left to right. Steve McBee and Lance Jones. On the boulder back row Kyle Bogard, Joe and Amy, Tracy Tate. Front row Pat Zimmerman and Riley Frakes.
Unfortunately Beech at this level does not lend itself to much photo taking. That's probably why there aren't many pictures of the other unamed drops. This is Steve McBee at the scout from creek right looking into Beech Falls. In between the previous photo and this one we had covered 3 or 4 miles of creek running 6 or 7 other Class IV drops that included a falls, multiple boulder garden drops, White Lightening, and Beech Ball. [BTW wood on left at Beech Ball the right line is clean.]
Pat Zimmerman running the correct line just off the volkswagon boulder to hit the slab and stay far left of the infamous rooster tail at Beech Falls. He cleaned it as did everyone else.
One of the most photogenic waterfalls along the creek. The lower section of the creek has a waterfall coming into almost every quarter mile. They are all beautiful. This one exceptionally so.
The umbrella magnolias were in full bloom. I paddled to a low hanging limb to smell the bloom. I decided to pick it and bring home to Belinda so I stuffed in the back of my life jacket for that last mile of calmer water to the takeout.
BETA: Beech on the painted gauge was just below 3 feet at 11AM. It had been raining the previous two hours with heavier bits of rain onto of a soaked system. By the time we ran shuttle to the top and did the drag down for put on it was noon. At the takeout at 6PM the gauge read just above 4 feet. In the 6 hour period we were on the creek it had risen from 3 up to 6 and back down to 4. That dramatic fluctuation in a very short time period is normal for Beech. A run on Beech is very hard to catch because this creek drains itself so fast. We were lucky to have daylight and relatively warm temperatures. The upper two miles with leaves on is very poor visibility. We were putting on the creek at what I judged to be the peak of its surge. We bank scouted 3 or 4 times. We had one mandatory portage at "Coming Home" there is wood in it. All other wood we encountered was visible above and we could slide through, around or over.
[In my loose memory of Beech lore I believe Amy joined an exclusive ladies club of Tracy Tate and Jonna Hussey both who'd run it before as the only three ladies to my knowledge that have run Beech. Its a classy club.]
That was Day One of my tripple crown for this spring. Day Two included ELFB, and Richland yesterday. There are tons of other stories and reports about the Beech run. I left out most of the highlights so I hope my trip mates will fill in the rest of the details.
, not b/c of possibly low levels.Although the unknown wood situation and hike certainly played a small part as well. Glad you fellas had a sweet day!props on gettin your squeeeeze on fellas. Amy and I had a great day w/ everyone on Beech.Phat flows, a good crew, tons of good rapids, beautiful scenery, and Shelby's valuable Beech beta, it just cant get any better than that! Beech might not be the steepest creek around but w/ enough water it is definitely THE CLASSIC creek of the Ozarks! IMO.Richland was wonderful as well.We put on expecting levels to drop from 5 inches, however they actually kept creeping up. 1st lap was fun and we met Ben Rodda and Jake at the confluence and they joined us for a lil huckin of long devils falls.I believe it was their 1st time off it and they both had good lines. Congrats fellas.2nd lap the flow was still creeping up and we essentially raced down w/ the surge and took out @ 0 inches!I think we floated it in under 55 min. the 2nd lap. Great weekend fo sheezy! 
I've updated my blog w/ pictures from sat & sun! update @ 
me), and actually gets progressively harder for three-quarters of the run. With the leaves now fully blown, visibility was very low until we hit Beech Proper. This really had me gripped, and made me nervous about the committment I had just made to a long and remote run of class IV. Even though the trees eventually let up, which helped my nerves, the rapids continuously got harder and harder. However, the run became more and more committing. The difficulty increased until we hit Beech Falls, and just when I thought I could not run anymore demanding rapids, the difficulty gradually decreased from IV+ to III/IV-,and the scenery amped up to class V 