Little Pigeon River, Middle Prong Trip Report – 9.28.04

By Trent Pearce

Level – 2 feet, Little Pigeon @ Hwy. 321 Bridge

    The gauge at the Highway 321 bridge over the Little Pigeon read 2 feet when we turned to drive up the road. After setting shuttle, we parked at the upper trailhead and hiked with our boats up to the bridge. After eyeing the drop above the bridge, we decided to go for it. A bit shaky and not feeling very confident, I scouted the simple drop several times, and almost ended up in the river, sans boat, thanks to my new super-slick Teva water shoes (note to self – Teva sucks). After Brian evacuated the ol’ colon and felt all better, we put on. I peeled out after Nick (B) and headed down. A small scrappy little ledge and a tight eddy on the right were all there was before the drop. I punched on through, and hit the drop with a hard boof about a foot from the left edge (a left shoulder boof looks tempting here, but will land you on rocks from about 8 feet). My boat landed flat with a thud, and I immediately realized that the hard part was yet to come.

“Manky” was the work that came to mind, and stuck with me throughout the rest of the run as I swerved around nasty roostertails, f-you rocks, and pinners. By the time I caught the eddy below the bridge, I was almost out of breath. Whew! With no let up whatsoever in the gradient, we each peeled out from our respective micro-eddies and headed downstream into Pinball, a steep, super-obstructed drop. At 2.0’, the moves consisted of lining up, taking a hard boof stroke, landing on a brace or duffeck to slow your momentum, punching a hole, and then doing it again. Surprisingly, I didn’t pinball OR piton in the rapid, thanks in part to the higher water level. Below Pinball proper the gradient continues unabated, with blind drop following boulder-choked blind drop.

After a fair amount of continuous Class IV boogie and one semi-mandatory portage around the Cave rapid (nasty little drop that feeds into a small cave/undercut [5.1]), we came to the top of the Ditch, located just below the second bridge (?). Luckily Nick knew the run, and could distinguish one blind drop from another from the top. We got out to take a look and ended up hiking the sucker, due to a giant log in the entrance and a substantial pin/piton on the second drop from the end in the main line, right where you wanted to be. Putting in below the Ditch yielded more steep boogie, although the gradient was beginning to ease off. After pulling out and hiking around a tree that was blocking a sweet-ass boof, we paddled down some easy III boogie to the takeout, just under the third bridge. Don’t miss that take-out eddy; it’s way over on the right and there isn’t a lot of room for boats in it. All factors considered, I think [if I’m ever inclined to do the run again] that 2 ft. on the 321 bridge might be my personal maximum. I suppose we’ll see next time, eh? Trent’s personal rating: very continuous class IV in micro streambed.