I've been wanting to get on this run for several years but never could get the proper rain amounts or I had to work or couldn't get a crew together or something. On November 11, 2009, everything came together. The area received nearly 2 inches of rain the day before and through the night. Tellico rose till it peaked at 7.8ft at 6:00am. All the tributaries in the area had lots of water including Bear Creek which dumps into the Cheoah River with a waterfall. The tough thing about running Slickrock is that there are no gauges on this river and it's tough to get a visual. The only way is to paddle down Calderwood Lake over a mile to the mouth of the creek to take a look which we didn't do. Based on all the water in the tributaries and ditches and with Tellico high, we decided to gamble that there would be enough but not too much water in Slickrock.
Steve Krajewski and I started hiking at Big Fat Gap at 12:00 noon. We knew this was a little late but we were armed with a headlamp and we knew there was a well maintained trail along the river too. We decided if we ran out of daylight, we'd hike out to the lake and paddle to the car with my headlamp. After hiking 1.5 miles down the side of the mountain on FS Trail #41, we arrived at the put-in at 1:00pm.
The level looked OK at the put-in. Just remember, a lot of tributaries add to the creeks volume just downstream.
We paddled down some class 2+ and class 3 till we came to the big attraction...Wildcat Falls. This is the first drop which was very runnable.
This is the second drop which had a bad boil approximately 10-15ft out from the base but was feeding everything back into the falls.
This is the 3rd and 4th drop. The 4th drop was the largest and was basically a horseshoe shaped falls. I've been told those that run this plug the hole and go deep and pop up downstream. I just wasn't up for that today and we decided to portage.
We encountered several logs but only had to portage 3 or so times. This one was a no go.
Here, I am entering one of the easier class 3 rapids. It's an S-turn around a rock.
As you can see in this picture, there was a log in this drop just under the surface. We both tapped it. This rapid would be unrunnable at lower levels.
There were several areas along the run where the gorge would narrow down and the blind drops just kept coming. We boat scouted most everything. I think we got out to look only a few times. There were logs hidden in some rapids but all went well.
About a mile above Calderwood Lake, there is another river wide 15ft waterfall. The left side looked the best. The right side had a horseshoe pocket. We ran it on the left side.
After reaching the lake at 5:30pm (official sunset), we discovered a problem. There had been so much rain in the area, that all the dams in the area were dumping 3 full gates of water. Calderwood Lake is a very narrow lake. Slickrock Creek dumps into Calderwood Lake about 2 miles below Cheoah Dam. The downstream current on the lake was unbelievable. We had to paddle up the lake 10ft off the bank to get to our car at the boat ramp also known as the Cheoah take-out. At 5:55pm, we arrived at the car as it was getting dark.
Slickrock Creek is a wilderness whitewater run that has been seen by only a few kayakers. Reports talk about an extensive hike. However, I'm not in the best of shape physically and didn't have any trouble hiking my boat down a well maintained trail off the side of a mountain for 1.5 miles. You must be prepared to boat scout rapids and make quick decisions on the fly. If you attempt to scout every rapid, you'll never make it out. It's really non-stop whitewater. You will need good water levels or you'll encouter more obstacles and mandatory portages. There were several rapids where we paddled over underwater logs that were good to go but, at lower water you'd never get across them. Have plenty of time to enjoy this run. We made it car to car in 6 hours. However, if we'd ran Wildcat Falls, we would have needed more time to setup safety and to scout. We kept moving to make sure we got out before dark. And finally, be sure to take a headlamp. There is a well maintained trail along Slickrock Creek. If you get caught in there by darkness, just hike out to the lake. Then, paddle to the boat ramp.
Slickrock Creek is one of the finest wilderness runs I've ever paddled. I can't wait to go back next time.
Till next time, keep praying for rain because it's working!
