Cumberland Falls Via Houseboat

~1500cfs
While at a bachelor party on Lake Cumberland, I snuck away on Sunday to run Cumberland Below the Falls with some of the Viking Canoe Club. This was after Jay failed to join me on Saturday for our originally planned run. (Sorry to Kevin on that front. We'll have to try again soon.) The water level was up and the CBF was beefy. Screaming Right was an auto mystery move, but didn't suck you into the hole. Surfers was pretty sticky, especially on river right. The paddle out was long, seemed longer than normal. But it was a great run and a great addition to relaxing at the lake all weekend.

Cumberland River

Josh, Spalding, Eric, Matt and Ben ran Cumberland below the Falls on Saturday. The river level was 2000cfs. It was 60 degrees, but the water temperature was very cold. Center Rock was pretty washed out. Screaming Right, Stairsteps and Last Drop were very nice at this level. Surfers was in, but a little hard to catch. The paddle out took an hour to do, but the lake level never came into play. Pictures and some video of this trip will be coming soon.

Cumberland River 7000cfs

On this Friday, Ben Ballard, his roomate Eric Thoben and their paddling buddy Matt Jarboe went down the Cumberland at 7000 cfs. Ben says he was a little nervous, but all went well.

The river washes out at this level, and becomes wave-trains and sticky holes. Surfers is none existent and screaming right turns in to a washout wave-train that is realy swirly. The only thing you really have worry about is Last Drop. It becomes a solid class IV. The line is like threading a needle and it has some bad consiquences if you mess up. Everyone ran it successfully and they had a good time.

Cumberland River

1700cfs

7 of us paddled the Cumberland below the Falls this Saturday. The weather was great, a little overcast at first but the sun came out later for a beautiful day on the water. Everything was in, Last Drop, Screaming Right, Stairsteps, all the way to the class II stuff at Bark Camp.

We paddled all the way out and it wasn't bad at all. The last 5 miles or so of the Cumberland is usually flat water, but now with the lake being low, a lot of that flat water is moving current. It took 4 hours to run, put-in to take-out.

I'll be back on The Cumberland again this year, probably more than once. I have some video from Screaming Right and Last Drop up on YouTube.

The Vikings and I, on the Cumberland

Flow: 580cfs
Lake Level: 705' (Last Drop was in)

I joined up with the vikings this day for a trip on the Cumberland. It was a great run with all of the rapids in all the way down to last drop. Surfers was good and we spent an hour and a half at just that one rapid. Surfers would be the perfect example of rapid for the Whitewater Park.

Screaming right was still the hardest rapid out there. Not that it was hard, but we had lots of flipping going on in our group at that rapid. Center Rock had some carnage as well.

Stairsteps and Last drop were good, they make the trip better since it is quite a hassle to get towed out on the boat and all. It is nice to have a couple more rapids to run.

Cumberland - Mohawk Canoe #2 R.I.P.

Cumberland River
Cumberland Below the Falls
450cfs

We lost a valuable friend today. The green Mohawk now rest beneath a log on the Cumberland. Maybe one day we will see it again. But until then we only have it's matching partner Mohawk Canoe #1. Their will never be another #2, nothing will compare.

Click here for the Mohawk Canoe Memorial Page

Great time on the Cumberland today. Carnage? What carnage? I didn't really see any carnage out there. I did how ever get to use every single piece of safety and rescue equipment that I had on me. Some of it twice.

6 mile flat water paddle out on the lake? What flat water? Their is nothing like a brisk 12 mile paddle to start your day. I highly recomend it.

Canoes aren't really meant for class III rivers. But you can't take the old school canoe out of the old school paddlers. And now you literally can't take the Mohawk Canoe #2 out of the Cumberland.

Truly one of the legendary whitewater trips of all time.

As for what the river is like at this level it is pretty good. Surfers looked good, but I didn't get surf at all on it. The real problem is that the lake is backed up all the way to Pinball so there really aren't a whole lot of rapids to even run. And even the little rapids have lots of undercut rocks and log jams on them.

Cumberland Below The Falls

1500cfs



Jay, Scott and I headed for Corbin, KY yesterday and ran the section of whitewater below the Falls of the Cumberland. It's a bout a 3 hours door to shove off after gearing up, checking in, walking down to shore from the parking lot. We set up a shuttle through Sheltowee Trace, it just sucks having to wait around after the trip for a ride back to our car and to waiting for the kayaks to come back to the outfitter. But the trip was well worth the visit. We had a great time, Jay sam Center Rock, Scott styled it. Scott swam Screaming Right, Jay styled it. I was flipping all over the place improving on my combat roll. I thought I had taken a bad line on Screaming right, but it turned out to be okay. We really should be running this stretch more often since it is so close to home. But it still falls short to the Rockcastle.

Cumberland Below the Falls

550cfs (falls gauge)
370cfs (williamsburg gauge)

Me and 29 other Viking Canoe Club members ran the Cumberland river. It was a great day boating. The rapids were not too hard or scary. Though they could change a lot at higher levels. Jim Gunn dislocated his shoulder on Screaming Right, playing in the hole as we left after an hour of playing in that hole. The raft company took him out. The shuttle is slow. I guess that by paddleing out you could save time and money, but be extra tired after a long 5+ miles of flat water paddling. I think the lake needs to be lower than 705' for all the rapids to be in.

Cumberland Falls - Class V-VI - Put in below here
Eagle Shoals - Class I+
No Name - Class II
Initiation - Class II
Center Rock - Class III
Bradfords Rock - Class II
Willy Nelson - Class II
Dog Slaughter - Class II
Surfers - Class II
Pinball - Class II-III (Level Dependant)
Screaming Right Hand Turn - Class III-IV (Level Dependant)
Stair Case - Class III
The Last Drop - Class III