Last Saturday I met up, by prearrangement, with Chris Kelly at the
Tellico River in Eastern Tennessee. It was low but boatable, the
weather was great, and it is a beatiful river.

From there we went to the Nantahala Gorge, where a bunch of Boatertalk
correspondents of Chris' were partying. It is rumored that some of
them boated that weekend.

During dinner at Guayabito's in Bryson City, Chris and I called gauges,
culled Guidebooks, and decided to head for the Doe River, in the
farthest eastern corner of Tennessee. Lower-water options would have
been the Nolichucky or French Broad, though I was loathe to consider
the French Broad because they were having a French Broad Festival at
the takeout in Hot Springs, NC. En route we camped at Moonshine Creek
campground in Balsam, North Carolina.

It rained on us all night in camp in Balsam. The Doe River is a Class
IV creek in a very constricted, isolated gorge. We were reluctant to
put on such a stream in possibly rising water, so we drove past the
painted gauge at the put-in for Big Laurel Creek, which runs into the
French Broad and for which the take-out is also Hot Springs. On the
way we passed numerous vehicles heading the other direction with boats
on their roofs. Bad sign.

Big Laurel was low -- about an inch above boating zero by the painted
paddlers' gauge -- but this rare gem is hard to catch and Chris has
never run it, AND it has the advantage of a coverted rail-grade hiking
trail alongside, in case *it* came up too high from the rains, that we
decided to endure the Hot Springs crowds and do this.

As we set our shuttle to Hot Springs Campground, takeout and site of
the festival, we saw virtually no-one in camp. There was no other
vehicle with boat-racks at the put-in. We had a delightful (if chilly)
run and had this lovely stream completely to ourselves. We figgered
we'd run into lotsa festival-goers once we entered the French Broad
proper for the last two miles or so into Hot Springs, but we saw nary a
one.

When we ran out afternoon shuttle to pick up Chris' car at the put-in
there was STILL not a single vehicle with boat racks at the put-in.

Unbelievable. A boater festival at the takeout to one of North
Carolina's gems, a Saturday night rain bringing it up to (barely)
boatable (actually, an easy level for Class III first-timers), and the
only people on it were the two of us who had driven 100 miles to get
there.

Unbelievable.

-Richard, His Kanubic Travesty
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Richard Hopley Winston-Salem, NC, USA
Nothing really matters except Boats, Sex, and Rock'n'Roll
rhopley[at]earthlink[dot]net
OK, OK; computer programming for scientific research also matters
rhopley[at]wfubmc[dot]edu
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