Humbled by the Nanty

[adamm]

I had family vacation planned since January to be in N.C. and do some floating. I had planned to start my river adventures on the Nantahala and work my way up to the Ocoee on Saturday via the French broad and chatooga. The southern Appalachians have been pounded by rain for a few weeks now and the big rivers are very high right now.

We got up this morning and headed to noc, knowing the river was too high for them to do any rentals or shuttles. I hooked up with a group of noc river guides and some pro paddlers and we took off up to fereby park. I car scouted the river and it looked swift and big, but not terrible.

The water level at the boat launch at the park was over the cement landing and up onto the ramp about 10 ft. I paddled out to the current and off we went at 2/3 the speed of sound. As we rounded the corner there was the first set of big waves. As I tried to paddle to the right and avoid this wave train I quickly realized how pushy the water was. Unable to avoid the meat I was pushed into the largest of the waves sideways and pushed over. I immediately rolled back up but was backwards going into a pretty nice flushy hole and out of the boat I came, 1 minute from entering the water.

A short swim to the nearest eddy had me about 50 ft from the place my boat was bulldozed to. Dumped quickly and back to the river we went. Made it through the next little wave train fine, a little mix up in the third wave train netted me another nice combat roll in the middle of the wave train. "You got this now" I was thinking to my self as the water pushed me into a rock that was just below water level. 2 failed roll attempts and out of the boat I came, watching it pin on a tree at the leading edge of an island. Someone unpinned it for me as I tried to make my way back to it. They were unable to get it to the island where I was standing. Back in the water I went, completely exhausted at this point. As I made it back to land one of the wait staff from the restaurant asked what time it was and notified the group he had to be at work In an hour. I then made the decision that I was only going to hold them up further and that I would hit the road and take my chances walking back.

Once I made it to the road and pulled my boat up the 30' tall mud bank I was picked up within the first 1/4 mile by a fellow paddler who said he had just run big Weser falls which in looking at it, I don't know how. When I got back I learned the river was flowing at just above 2600 cfs. The cascades had been untouched for a few days and the upper Nanty was flowing at a very sketchy class 5+

In short, today was a very humbling step up (?) into class 4 water.

I will be updating y'all with the rest of my adventures as they unfold and will post some video highlights when I get home and do some editing, although I'm computer illiterate and new with the gopro and software so don't expect much.

[okieboater]

Some times the mellow Nantahala shows it's teeth!

Glad you are there having fun just be safe and from the post it looks like you are giving the Nanty the respect it deserves.

Looking forward to the next installment post.

[adamm]

From 3 different 10+ season guides and 1 old man that has lived there his whole life, "it's as big as its ever been". The Nantahala falls were very impressive with 2 big nasty holes at the bottom and a 4 ft haystack/curler at the top.

[panicman]

Don't fret big pushy flooded river class IV is a whole different ballgame than regular flow pool drop IV. Things come at you way faster at those kind of conditions.

[adamm]

http://youtu.be/B4A112BIwp8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Here is a cell phone video of the Nantahala falls.

[Opes]

Wow...that is a whole different beast.

[okieboater]

At that video flow level, a lot of normally safe things could go bad.

I have seen and been on the Nanty at close to the levels the video shows. Really fun long as you stay upright in your boat.

Lesser Wesser AKA Nantahala Falls gets a bit nasty at big time flow. Normally a flip and swim there is no big deal, plenty of time to swim to shore.

The greater danger to me from a unplanned flip and swim at Nanty Falls is all that big water starts flushing big time direct down the normally flat water past the bridges and into Big Wesser Falls. Which my bet is becomes a truly big time rapid. So if you flip and swim at Nanty Falls, it is much harder to get to shore before the bridges. Granted after you clear the bridges there is a flat section. But it is screaming fast flat water at big time levels. If you get banged up before the flats, you better recover fast else you face Big Wesser. Never seen Big Wesser at those levels but I suspect a big water swim of that bad boy would be epic.

I know on one trip I chased a play boat from Nanty Falls down to the bridges. It stayed in the fast flow and I could not corral it. It zipped thru the play hole and never slowed down till a C1 boater running the slalom course made a really neat one hand grab and sling move that put the boat in the slower water where I could bull doze it to the bank.

adamm, did you happen to walk down the RR tracks and check out Big Wesser?

[adamm]

I did, that was the first stop when we got there. I was awe struck standing there looking at it and did not get any video of it. It was just a solid jet of mostly green water. As it made the first drop the rock in the middle made almost a ski boat like wake with huge curlers coming off both sides. I will be back there tomorrow and will get a cell phone video of it. As of right now it is still flowing at 2280 so it should still be impressive.

[RomanLA]

I paddled out to the current and off we went at 2/3 the speed of sound. As we rounded the corner there was the first set of big waves. As I tried to paddle to the right and avoid this wave train I quickly realized how pushy the water was. Unable to avoid the meat I was pushed into the largest of the waves sideways and pushed over. I immediately rolled back up but was backwards going into a pretty nice flushy hole and out of the boat I came, 1 minute from entering the water.

Big water is mostly a mental game. You want to relax and steer more than you paddle. If you paddle a lot, you'll get going faster than the water and things will happen faster. Unless you suspect a hole, stay out in the wave trains. You don't want to be messing with eddy lines. If you get sideways, lean downstream into the waves and plant a paddle blade to brace and/or pull yourself over breaking waves. Start with small waves and work your way up. If a wave attacks you, attack it back. Lean in to it and put a blade into it. Have fun out there!

[okieboater]

Well, if a person gets tired of the Nantahala in flood
take a short drive over to the Ocoee
If you make it off the ramp big fun awaits you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DimbaeYGFBQ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[RomanLA]

Seen this one yet? It's pretty washed out, but they start getting some nice waves towards the end.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxJwbmIIqsY