(Chris Bell)

Typed in Message-ID:

Not to quibble . . . but neither the Watauga nor the Upper Yough are
class V rivers. The AW site rates both as IV-V, but if you check the
ratings of individual rapids you'll find that the Upper Yough has a
single low V and the Watauga two low V's. Like the Upper Gauley,
which also has a handful of very low V's in AW's opinion (indeed,

they
defend their rating of Insignificant as class V by saying "Class V has
to start somewhere . . ."), folks who frequently paddle Eastern Class
V would be unlikely to consider any of these "Class V Classics" class
V rivers.

Have to agree with Chris on this one. While these were cutting edge streams 10
years ago, there are not the extreme end of Eastern WW now. I would have to
give that to runs like Deckers, Otter, Manns and some of the really tiny and
steep stuff coming off the Walden's Ridge in Tennessee.

What differed
was what paddlers in the various regions without much experience in
other regions found challenging. Less traveled Eastern boaters often
find high water honking big water bob down the middle challenging,
less traveled Western boaters often find tweeze through the boulder

garden then land on the rocks challenging.

I've also found that true. I once ran the New at reasonably high flow, about
4.5' at Fayette Station with a group of reasonably skilled Tennessee Creek
Boaters. Several
very good boaters had repeated swims because they weren't use to dealing with
the big water. I've had Western boaters tell me that the Little in the Smokies
wasn't runnable at 1000 cfs (which is a pretty decent level BTW).


SYOTR
Larry C.