Little Clear Creek Trip Report
Saturday, November 13, 2004
By Trent Pearce
Water levels: Clear Creek @ Lily Bridge: 1,240 cfs and falling
Obed River nr. Lancing: peaking at 4,010 cfs
Emory River @ Oakdale: 6,390 and falling
We put on at the Hwy 63(?) bridge around 12:30 in the afternoon. The water was just deep enough at the put-in to cover the blades of our paddles (around 16 inches?). There is a flat rock just upstream of the bridge that would make a nice reference/gauge, on the upstream side is a flat shelf extending out into the river, and the water was almost covering this. [small seam on river’s edge of boulder that marked the exact water level]. This is definitely the minimum level for this run; with a little more water some of the drops would get significantly easier, but some of the strainers would be death.
2 excruciatingly long miles of flatwater await after the put-in. This provides more than enough time to warm up, stretch, practice eddy-turns in bushes, wonder if you’ve put on the right creek, and shout with joy when the rapids finally appear. The gradient slowly picks up, with tiny rapids building up to slightly bigger ones. When you come to a blind rapid or something that you can’t clearly see, it’s time to get out and scout.
Mandatory Portage: this rapid wasn’t really a mandatory portage at all. It’s a fun series of small drops with LOTS of wood in them. We drug around a small pine tree at the very top on an island on the left, and launched back in. Below is a small 2-3 foot ledge that piles into an undercut and has a riverwide strainer immediately after, in the exit. There was just enough water to make the moves and squeeze/boof over the strainer, but it was not safe at all. I would recommend portaging, but the carry is through rhotodendron hell that’s almost worse. Immediately after this drop is the entrance to Triple Drop, but there are plenty of eddies.
Triple Drop: this rapid consists of the main Triple Drop rapid and a small entrance rapid. The entrance rapid is a 3-foot sloping ledge-type creature. There are ample eddies between this and the main drop, but if you are nervous and eat it here, it could be a long, rough ride. Triple Drop proper consists of a 5-foot drop that lands on a sloping shelf with about 2 inches of water on it, sliding 20 feet or so into a second 5-6 foot broken drop with a funky seam/undercut on the right, landing on another slide that zips into a micro speed-trap type hole, then over a 4 foot ledge into a big pool. We ran far left over the first drop, where the majority of the current flows. Don’t pencil this one, but don’t land flat either, ‘cause it stings (4 inches of water isn’t much padding). A left line here lined us up with the middle of the second drop, where you want to be. Far right on the second drop is a seam/undercut thing, and left is shallow. Once on the slide, there ain’t no steering. The second ledge drops onto another rock slide that feeds into a tiny version of the Green’s speed trap, then slow deeper water to the third 4-foot ledge. This ledge had a schweet auto-boof on the left side, and the right side is quite undercut. At higher water, this could form a monster hole that feeds into the undercut. There are rock ledges all along the right riverbank from which to scout, but they’re slippery. Once at the bottom of the rapid, there is no good place to take out to set safety or watch you buds; we crawled our boats under one of the overhanging ledges and climbed back up.
After the pool was a large log to drag around, and then a technical boulder jumble, a small sideways drop into a super-tight chute with a 3-foot drop at the bottom. The bottom drop has wonderful piton/pin potential, so boof the hell out of it. One of our party members gave his brand-new Diesel creeker a ‘hairlip’ from this drop. More tight stuff follows, leading in to…
Novacaine: at this water level (minimum), this rapid is essentially a sieve. It consists of a large boulder river right blocking all the current, which is the place to scout and set safety, since you can practically touch boats as they go through. A small ripple feeds into a good eddy on river left, and allows you to line up. The water pours down through a chute in the rocks, and that’s where you go. This cute had a chunk of wood in it that no one managed to hit, a nice broaching rock to the left, and overhanging nastiness to the right. No one died here; we didn’t even manage to get stuck. This rapid could be easier or much harder with more water. The run-out to this rapid feeds into a giant pile of trees on the bank, but was easily avoidable. Good luck.
Following Novacaine is a small 3-foot ledge into a big pool, followed by a large 8-foot ledge. Signified by a house-sized boulder on river left, the big ledge has a super-sweet auto-boof right down the middle. Think middle ledge on the Tellico. Don’t run right, less you get stuffed under a rock. This rapid would definitely have a monster hydraulic at higher water – use caution. There is a nice pool, leading into the next drop.
Oh Yeah! This rapid is on river-right, and a large sand bar on the left provides a scout. It’s a straightforward 6-7 foot drop into a super-tight landing zone. The drop is split at the top by a rock pile, and currently has wood in the left slot. The right slot slides over a big, sloping boulder and into the bottom. This drop has the potential for either an amazingly sick shoulder boof into suds, or a hairy mystery-move into rocks, depending on what you do going off the drop. Our party opted to try both methods, with varying degrees of success. Watch that left elbow on the landing. Duck under the overhanging rock in the washout, and catch the large eddy on the left to watch your friends eat it. This rapid reminded me a lot of the Elbow on the Little River, but much shorter and cleaner.
After Oh Yeah! are some nasty logs that we drug around on the far left, then lauched and ran a schweet waterpark-type chute on river left. This leads into a small 3-foot ledge with a big rock right in the middle. Landing with a hard left angle lines you up to miss it, landing straight and swerving to avoid the rock with skip you out of the water and onto the bank. Left is recommended. The rest of the right is super-tight, technical boulder dodging / knuckle dragging on down to big Clear Creek. The contrast of big Clear Creek, which will be running at least 1,200 or more, is dramatic. Be sure to surf the wave right under Lily Bridge in your big creeker, to show those playboaters how it’s done.