Green River through Mammoth Cave

Mammoth Cave Gauge: 16ft - 24ft

Jay, Sarah, Zach, Jennifer and myself paddled the Green River through Mammoth Cave National Park this past weekend. This was after heavy rains so the water level was very high, but the Green is a calm river in this the Green River Ferry to Houchins Ferry. That current kept us moving at a speedy 3 mph without even paddling. At our campsite the river rose about 8 feet while we were there overnight. This was a fantastic trip and the weather cooperated beautifully through out. Some highlights through out were the confrontation with the ferry man and Zach's wood gathering rampages. Beastie became the "Best Dog Ever" after continually jumping in the river to retrieve sticks. I got a speeding ticket driving home. Pretty weak ticket, 10mph over the speed limit. The coolest part of the section we paddled was one spot where an underground spring came in. The only way to get here was to paddle to it. The rest of the scenery along the river was nothing too special. We camped on Boardcut Island.

Dead Cow Elkhorn

400cfs

400 is just a great level, lot's a little play spots out there when the Elkhorn is like this. The Dead Cow was still there and we took some pictures. Took out some beginners today, including Toby, David and some Vikings. Had a great time spending about 5 hours on the water.

Little River

680cfs

So after a quick few days of planning I ended up on my way to Tennessee at 7am to run the Little river in the Smokies. I met up with John along the way and transfered my gear to his truck. Then at the Elkmont campground we met up with Kyle, Gary, Paul, Meryl and Stephanie from the Vikings. This day we ran a 10 mile section from Elkmont to the Sinks. It was a fantastic run with non stop class II the whole way, the whitewater never stopped, never. And there were 3 real good class III+ rapids mixed in there.

I wasn't expecting those, but not knowing they were there only helped in running them. It was after you finished the rapid that you look back and realized what it was. The craziest one was hidden from the road, which normally runs the entire length of the river. The river becomes about 4 feet wide in a fast chute that falls on it's self. I ended up backwards half way through but managed to stay upright. In fact I never flip this day, so I never had to test my roll on my newly healed right shoulder. Plenty of times where I almost did though. That rapid before the Meanies especially. It was a hard right turn that comes very unexpectedly, where the water rides along the side of a rock, I was all the way under that rock wall on my side scraping my other side against it going through. I had to hold the top brim of the rock to stay up right. John fractured his canoe repair this day, thus re-exposing his canoe leak. Kyle then ran the Sinks while we watched. We camped after eating a steak dinner in Gatlinburg and then drove on home Sunday morning. Great run that could be run from anywhere to anywhere due to the roadside pull offs the whole way. We should go back if there is enough water in it. It was a little low this day at 680cfs. Very boney and technical. We even had a couple of pins. The right amount of water should make the run a little easier. Plus there is a class II section down lower.

Elkhorn in April

1300cfs

Well it was just one of those after work runs that Jay and I made. The river was fast, but void of any of it's real good features. There is just a certain level where the Elkhorn gets weak and this was it. We ran from the put-in to the first take out in about an hour and 10 minutes. We were trying to beat the darkness and we did so by a long shot. The interesting thing that happened this day was that Jay forgot to wear his nose plugs!!! Can you believe it! We also got to see the dead cow. I'm sure that cow will be real ripe next time we go through. We were the last ones onto the river, but we were not the last ones off.