This afternoon I ran into Michael Carter, Michael Williams and Ernie Chilcott at the Haw River access just below U.S. 64. The three were hopeful of taking advantage of Tropical Storm Hanna's dump this morning, which, depending on where you live in the Triangle, ranged from three to five inches. They took one look at the river — running large, fast and frothy — and decided it best to move on.
That's Michael Williams in the orange shirt, Michael Carter in the maroonish shirt and Ernie Chilcott, shirtless in the rear. They did a lot of driving today, plan to do a lot of paddling tomorrow.
"There's the wood factor," Carter said as the four of us watched logs 20 feet long bob down the river, a river that was running at 26,000 cubic feet per second (1,000 to 4,000 is considered good for paddling, according to Paul Ferguson of "Paddling Eastern North Carolina" fame). Nothing like getting smacked from behind by an oak speedboat. "Let's check out the Rocky," they decided.
Did they?
"We didn’t run the Rocky, it was too high," Carter e-mailed me late this evening. "Much of the river was in the woods, making getting out of the river difficult and dangerous. We travelled up to the Eno to look at Stones Creek Rapid (the area's only Class IV). It was a Class V today due to riverwide strainers. My buddy Mike Williams took pictures of it, we plan to post them on the AW website. The Eno was about 18 feet when we got there; to me four feet is optimal. It still wasn’t as high as when Fran hit, exactly 12 years ago.
"This is first time in a long time," observed Carter, who chairs the conservation committee of the Carolina Canoe Club, "that every Triangle area river was too high to safely run (unless you feel comfortable paddling in trees).
"We will check the gauges in the morning. The crazy thing about the Rocky, it doesn’t look like it will be running tomorrow. Like I said, it is the hardest river in the Triangle area to catch.
"We plan to run my favorite run, the Upper Eno and Lower Eno from Lawrence Road to West Point on the Eno. It is about a 14-mile run. It is like the Nantahala. The main attraction of the run is the scenery, which is spectacular."
So what else will be runnable tomorrow? I'll be back a little later with word from Paul Ferguson.
