It All Runs Down: January 2008

First published in Playboating Magazine, Issue 45, Autumn 05

Paddlers who live in Western North Carolina are blessed with a gem, a heavenly river with tight lines, multitudes of boof maneuvers and a Gorilla in the middle. When other rivers are not flowing in the area, this river continues to deliver the fix that the creek boater craves. 3 miles with an average gradient of 178 ft per mile, a maximum gradient of 342 fpm and a ‘narrows’ section containing 11 major class IV to V+ rapids in a row. Most consider it as a training ground, some a race course but to an outsider it really is as a gift.

Steve Bates@ Go Left. Photographer, Stew Bennett

The Green Narrows is situated about 30 minutes South of Asheville NC and regularly flows throughout the year being a dam release river. The optimum level to run the Green is at 100% when one of the Hydro electric turbines is running. Only when the lake is below a certain level will the flow be switched off and after heavy rain the second turbine is put into action providing a juicy 200% run. Combine 200% with overspill from the dam and natural flow from feeder creeks and the local pro’s are in liquid delight but at this time they are usually paddling more challenging (masochistic) runs.

A 15 minute walk in, a 200 meter paddle on moving water and Big Hungry Creek flows in on the left indicating the last chance of a sensible walk out. The run then starts with a deceptively placid lead in before the walls start forming and closing in. The river constricts and the Bride of Frankenstein guards the entrance to when the fun begins.

Liam Hooper @ Gorilla

Take the entrance to the Bride left, cut back right and punch the hole, move straight into Frankenstein. Break out right, cut left through the slot paddling upstream into the eddy, paddle right making a boof into the next eddy above a sieve, cut back left and paddle hard across the face of the undercut rock ….. Pin Cushion, Whales Tail, Boof of Consequence, Go Left or Die, Zwicks, Chief, Gorilla (collectively made up of the Pencil Sharpner, Notch, Zoom Flume, Scream Machine, Nies’Pieces), Power Slide, Rapid Transit, Groove Tube, Sunshine, Toilet Bowl and finally Hammer Factor.

Stew Bennett @ Scream Machine

The run is comparable to a computer game, having to make precise moves as to not travel into the no go zones where you loose energy or take a direct hit. Each rapid has a unique character with specific lines to make. At the end of certain levels you can either decide to take on the ‘Boss’ or type in a cheat to take them on at a later date when you have become a better gamer. The three ‘Bosses’ or main rapids of consequence, each have innocuous lead ins’, get these right and you will be set you up to avoid the danger and take imminent glory. Get them wrong and probable injury will follow.

At Go Left you have to boof over a log through a small gap whilst paddling perpendicular to the current. Skirt the middle 6ft drop across the top of the hole, continue to angle left and then squeeze through a narrow gap. Before you even contemplate running the Flume on Gorilla, you have the crux move called the Notch to deal with. The Notch is a 4 ft constriction that lands you into a boily mess with undercut left and right walls. Many people have come unstuck in the Notch and have not run the main drop 10ft afterwards elegantly. If you are able to successfully make it into the right eddy above the main drop and then run it cleanly, you may hit the speed trap a hungry constricted hole and either get window shaded, back looped or ride it clean. Without any let up, get hard right to avoid the hole at the bottom of Scream Machine and then Nies’ Pieces. The final Boss ‘Sunshine’ is possibly the hardest rapid on the Narrows and the most consequential due to the water pounding onto a broken rock shelf from 12ft. You need to break out in the left eddy just above the lip, drop slowly facing upstream onto a reactionary wave and head hard right timing your last boof stroke to be taken just over the edge sending you away from the rock. On landing, quickly set up to complete the shallow run out.

When paddling the Green it is very misleading when you see countless boaters continuously running the ‘Big Three’ cleanly and at high levels. Then someone explains to you who the boaters are and what their boating caliber is. Most are paddling the run 3 plus times a week and it has been know for the more dedicated Green enthusiast to complete 4 runs in a day. What is even more deceptive is recently the 11 year old Dane Jackson completed his first run making sensible judgments about which rapids to paddle. By the tender age of 13 Pat Keller had run Gorilla but both these young paddlers are exceptions. The utmost respect and care must be taken on this river. Also it is wise to tell the inquisitive hoards of tubers at the take out that they should definitely not go there no matter on how much you agree with selective breeding.

Further information with regards to water levels and the ever increasing delicate situation with regards to access can be found at:

www.boatingbeta.com

http://www.americanwhitewater.org/rivers/id/1080