Big Water

So, for some reason recently, I have been thinking about big water. I’ve been working hard to pay off student loans, and I haven’t been paddling as much as in the past. In spite of this, every second of my time on the water has been high in both quality and flow. Over the past two months, I’ve paddled the Horsepasture at high water, Overflow to Lake at 3.5 feet, Tellico at 7 feet, Watauga at 1300, and some juicy Green runs. It’s been awesome!

Baby Falls a little while back.

Credit: Daniel Stewart

After our run on the Watauga this past weekend, some friends and I started bouncing around epic stories of high water on all of our favourite rivers. Here are some of the ones that I think I know… however feel free to correct me if I’m off on these.

Chattooga- 10 feet by Russ Kullmar and crew.
Raven Fork- 27 inches by Matt Sheridan, solo, in an I3.
Green- not sure, but I’ve run it up to 26. Pat and I ran Gorilla at 24.
Watauga- I’m sure it’s been run over 3,000.
Elk- I feel confident in saying that Herzog, Spencer and I hold that one, Watauga was at 9,000.
Linville- 3.3ish? probably by Herzog, Brad Kee, etc… although the gauge has changed.
Ottawa- Billy Harris and crew at 30 feet.
New River Gorge- Was Brian Jennings at 95,000ish, I’ll bet someone broke that recently.

So what have you guys got? I want to hear:

Toxaway Bear, West Prong, Rock Island Falls/Sieve Rapid, Little River Canyon, Nolichucky, Wilson’s Creek, Gauley, New, Gatineau, Rouge, Taureau, Upper Cherry, Middle Kings, Stikine, etc…

Comment here or back on Boatertalk. Photos are even better!

Cheers!
Chris