Bullet Creek
Moderators: kenneth, sbroam, TheKrikkitWars, Mike W., Sir Adam, KNeal, PAC, adamin
-
Louie
Bullet Creek
Starr Mountain, near Tellico Plains. Yellow Creek goes into it Cumknock will have it on the Waldens Ridge site soon and the American Kayakers. PLG will have a video made soon also. We left a few to be cleaned, remember when people first ran the Green a lot of folks wanted to know why anyone would be dumb enought to it too. If you look at the picture of Yellow creek ( last river listed on the Tennessee page) Bullet is like a harder version of it.
-
Louie
First D Bullet Creek 09 May 2009
Mike “Louie” Lewis (OC-1)
Chad Lewis (C-1)
Mark Cumnock (K-1)
Fred Alten (I-K)
Special thanks to Chris King for helping with our shuttle.
Bullet Creek falls off of Starr Mountain in Tennessee and is a super steep creek.
You have ½ mile of flat-water, and a 1 mile Class II paddle out boogie water, and one mile of Class V with
Laurel and Rhododendron hades.
Morgan Creek on Walden’s Ridge is wide open compared to Bullet. We caught Bullet on perfect timing,
on our shuttle. We gambled on a flash of rain from an approaching storm front. (Mobile SmartPhones Rock)
Our gamble paid off. Once the shuttle was set we watched the two local creeks come up, so Bullet was a
go. Once on Bullet, it was bush /limb dodging until we came to the first rapid, from there it picked up.
Once into the gorge it was full on Class V creeking, with Class V portages you earned every foot you
paddled and you earned every foot you scouted and portaged. The laurel was intense. The worse I have
ever experienced in my 20 + years of paddling.
Chad Lewis, Fred Alten and Chris King trying to figure out the location of the put-in with it
dumping rain.
Here is the first major rapid, the insult to injury? It lands into 1 ft of water. It’s a clean drop
except for the landing.
Here is one of the better rapids. This picture does it no justice, on river left is an over-hang undercut, (not shown)
with most of the water heading towards the undercut and the middle section of the drop is about a 15ft
than lands on a slab .Chad Lewis, nailed this drop , with a sideways hard landing due to the manky approach.
(not shown)
Fred’s attempt was less technical with straight-on approach with spectacular results
Chad broke his boat on this drop. Before the day was done, Chad would be getting even more new gear
after this run.
The next major rapid that got caught on a camera…(that doesn’t mean we were Japanese tourist : )
Also another rapid that the picture does it no justice….
This rapid had a very blind approach with 15 foot long slide for its entrance (not shown), then the water
tried to push you into undercuts, the run out landed into a <15 foot pool, with sieved out “death on a stick”
logs clogging the main chutes.(not shown)
The approach was also a hard left then haul butt to the right “get on the gas approach”, which was super
manky. Here Chad Lewis broke his paddle, and did a quick bailout, onto a rock, with a one-handed bear hug.
His quick thinking saved his hide. Running this with a broken paddle with the death sieves coming up, would
ruin your vacation plans.
This picture makes it look like Class III, It’s not …..
After a brutal portage of us crawling on our stomachs due to the thickness of the laurel, and rapids with
log blockages, we discovered this rapid. This picture also does this rapid no justice also.
The approach is long and is multi-moved and maked out into an major undercut, then you run the slide,
most of the water is heading river right into another undercut. The hole was sticky and you needed hull speed
to clear it. Here is the bottom section of the rapid.
Mike “Louie” Lewis running .50 CAL
(I named it .50 CAL ‘cause I wanted a sniper to shoot me after the portage.)
After another brutal and intense portage, we found Bullet Creek Falls; here is the approach to the falls.
The portage was very intense, the rocks were slick and if you fell in, it was your arse. The portage was just
as horrible. You had to “Chinese Fire Drill” your boat to your buddy, and then we crab crawled down
the cliff, while hanging onto tree branches, and lowered our boats to the next guy using ropes.
The approach had all the makings of a Toxaway Rapid, until we saw it’s landing.
Once at Bullet Creek Falls, we showered off and ran more Class V. Yes it lands on rock : (
Here is the Bottom section to Bullet Creek
Here it actually turns into fun. You finally have enough bedrock to actually start scouting
without fighting the Laurel and Rhododendron, here we got to pick up the pace, so even
less pictures were taken. This section has Class V boulder gnar. Pick your line, and take
the lick.
Once on Yellow Creek, it mellowed out, and it we paddled out to the take-out with only one mishap due to a strainer.
I will also be adding more intel about this run on the WaldensRidgeWhiteWater.com site in the following weeks.
Mark Cumnock
Mike “Louie” Lewis (OC-1)
Chad Lewis (C-1)
Mark Cumnock (K-1)
Fred Alten (I-K)
Special thanks to Chris King for helping with our shuttle.
Bullet Creek falls off of Starr Mountain in Tennessee and is a super steep creek.
You have ½ mile of flat-water, and a 1 mile Class II paddle out boogie water, and one mile of Class V with
Laurel and Rhododendron hades.
Morgan Creek on Walden’s Ridge is wide open compared to Bullet. We caught Bullet on perfect timing,
on our shuttle. We gambled on a flash of rain from an approaching storm front. (Mobile SmartPhones Rock)
Our gamble paid off. Once the shuttle was set we watched the two local creeks come up, so Bullet was a
go. Once on Bullet, it was bush /limb dodging until we came to the first rapid, from there it picked up.
Once into the gorge it was full on Class V creeking, with Class V portages you earned every foot you
paddled and you earned every foot you scouted and portaged. The laurel was intense. The worse I have
ever experienced in my 20 + years of paddling.
Chad Lewis, Fred Alten and Chris King trying to figure out the location of the put-in with it
dumping rain.
Here is the first major rapid, the insult to injury? It lands into 1 ft of water. It’s a clean drop
except for the landing.
Here is one of the better rapids. This picture does it no justice, on river left is an over-hang undercut, (not shown)
with most of the water heading towards the undercut and the middle section of the drop is about a 15ft
than lands on a slab .Chad Lewis, nailed this drop , with a sideways hard landing due to the manky approach.
(not shown)
Fred’s attempt was less technical with straight-on approach with spectacular results
Chad broke his boat on this drop. Before the day was done, Chad would be getting even more new gear
after this run.
The next major rapid that got caught on a camera…(that doesn’t mean we were Japanese tourist : )
Also another rapid that the picture does it no justice….
This rapid had a very blind approach with 15 foot long slide for its entrance (not shown), then the water
tried to push you into undercuts, the run out landed into a <15 foot pool, with sieved out “death on a stick”
logs clogging the main chutes.(not shown)
The approach was also a hard left then haul butt to the right “get on the gas approach”, which was super
manky. Here Chad Lewis broke his paddle, and did a quick bailout, onto a rock, with a one-handed bear hug.
His quick thinking saved his hide. Running this with a broken paddle with the death sieves coming up, would
ruin your vacation plans.
This picture makes it look like Class III, It’s not …..
After a brutal portage of us crawling on our stomachs due to the thickness of the laurel, and rapids with
log blockages, we discovered this rapid. This picture also does this rapid no justice also.
The approach is long and is multi-moved and maked out into an major undercut, then you run the slide,
most of the water is heading river right into another undercut. The hole was sticky and you needed hull speed
to clear it. Here is the bottom section of the rapid.
Mike “Louie” Lewis running .50 CAL
(I named it .50 CAL ‘cause I wanted a sniper to shoot me after the portage.)
After another brutal and intense portage, we found Bullet Creek Falls; here is the approach to the falls.
The portage was very intense, the rocks were slick and if you fell in, it was your arse. The portage was just
as horrible. You had to “Chinese Fire Drill” your boat to your buddy, and then we crab crawled down
the cliff, while hanging onto tree branches, and lowered our boats to the next guy using ropes.
The approach had all the makings of a Toxaway Rapid, until we saw it’s landing.
Once at Bullet Creek Falls, we showered off and ran more Class V. Yes it lands on rock : (
Here is the Bottom section to Bullet Creek
Here it actually turns into fun. You finally have enough bedrock to actually start scouting
without fighting the Laurel and Rhododendron, here we got to pick up the pace, so even
less pictures were taken. This section has Class V boulder gnar. Pick your line, and take
the lick.
Once on Yellow Creek, it mellowed out, and it we paddled out to the take-out with only one mishap due to a strainer.
I will also be adding more intel about this run on the WaldensRidgeWhiteWater.com site in the following weeks.
Mark Cumnock
Cumnock wrote:First D Bullet Creek 09 May 2009
... and one mile of Class V with Laurel and Rhododendron hades...Once into the gorge it was full on Class V creeking, with Class V portages you earned every foot you paddled and you earned every foot you scouted and portaged. The laurel was intense. The worse I have ever experienced in my 20 + years of paddling... the insult to injury? It lands into 1 ft of water...about a 15ft than lands on a slab... with a sideways hard landing due to the manky approach...Chad broke his boat on this drop. Before the day was done, Chad would be getting even more new gear after this run... which was super manky... broke his paddle, and did a quick bailout, onto a rock, with a one-handed bear hug... His quick thinking saved his hide. Running this with a broken paddle with the death sieves coming up, would ruin your vacation plans...After a brutal portage of us crawling on our stomachs due to the thickness of the laurel, and rapids with log blockages...I named it .50 CAL ‘cause I wanted a sniper to shoot me after the portage...After another brutal and intense portage... The portage was very intense, the rocks were slick and if you fell in, it was your arse... The portage was just as horrible. You had to “Chinese Fire Drill” your boat to your buddy, and then we crab crawled down the cliff, while hanging onto tree branches, and lowered our boats to the next guy using ropes...yes it lands on rock : (
What time do we need to set shuttle????
I absolutely love this quote-
Positively CLASSIC!Cumnock wrote:It’s a clean drop...
except for the landing.
JD
-
Longboatin
- CBoats Addict
- Posts: 435
- Joined: Wed May 04, 2005 5:30 pm
- Location: Nor' side - Pittsburgh, PA
wtf
Louie,
wtf - is this the 700fpm of your dreams - done w/ the vids and moving on to fiction? what gives?
wtf - is this the 700fpm of your dreams - done w/ the vids and moving on to fiction? what gives?
-
Louie
-
Yukon
- Yukan Canoe
- Posts: 391
- Joined: Fri Jun 01, 2007 4:27 pm
- Location: Whitehorse, Yukon,Canada
- Contact:
hey our hometown river is maybe foot per mile but hey its has volume...
I have clocked it on the GPS at 8-12 mph or around 20km per hour
And that is with a beer in hand and feet on the gunnels and you can go for 1500 miles- 2500km Mind you further down it does turn lake like
Only 3 bridges across the entire river and only one set of rapids
hazards -beers, germans and Dawson city "PIT" (local watering hole) that people get stuck in for years.
What river you say The mighty YUKON
I have clocked it on the GPS at 8-12 mph or around 20km per hour
And that is with a beer in hand and feet on the gunnels and you can go for 1500 miles- 2500km Mind you further down it does turn lake like
Only 3 bridges across the entire river and only one set of rapids
hazards -beers, germans and Dawson city "PIT" (local watering hole) that people get stuck in for years.
What river you say The mighty YUKON
-
Longboatin
- CBoats Addict
- Posts: 435
- Joined: Wed May 04, 2005 5:30 pm
- Location: Nor' side - Pittsburgh, PA
Definitely down for the Cheoah, but need a bit longer heads up. Like I asked u before, is there a list of releases? AW site says something like 18 thru the year, would be cool to have at least a rough idea when they are.
Our local run is a proper river, aint nowhere near steep, but runs 365, so a good place to hone skills.
Anyway, ive got the WVa bug again, so hopefully w/ wettish summer Ill brush up my tru creekin skills on some steepys and be ready to drop it wid you next ALF.
Our local run is a proper river, aint nowhere near steep, but runs 365, so a good place to hone skills.
Anyway, ive got the WVa bug again, so hopefully w/ wettish summer Ill brush up my tru creekin skills on some steepys and be ready to drop it wid you next ALF.
I think Louie posted it before but here ya go.
There is a release schedule on this one.
http://www.boatingbeta.com
More southeast water here.
http://www.waldensridgewhitewater.com/
Between the two, just about all the runs in the southeast can be found .
There is a release schedule on this one.
http://www.boatingbeta.com
More southeast water here.
http://www.waldensridgewhitewater.com/
Between the two, just about all the runs in the southeast can be found .
-
Louie
http://www.kayakmind.com/profiles/blogs ... er-release
Long boat, American Kayaker ( formerly American Whitewater ) has become one of the least helpful of the boatin webb site and remains very un openboater friendly. Walden Ridge or Ashville Area Boating beta is head and shoulder above and beyond American Kayaker for good accurate and more importantly up todate information.
About Summer boating: Of course the Ocoee is all summer long, creeks are a little harder to have in the Summer, however the Green Narrows does run in the summer, I have been told it is officaly a class IV run now of days, but reguardless it is still fun and I know how to get there. Remember the first time I did it in 1989 I was in an Encore which is like only 3 feet shorter than your boat, but it only has one seat. If you went I bet you would have the record for the longest boat to ever put on the narrows, and if you got the boat off the river that would be another record.
Long boat, American Kayaker ( formerly American Whitewater ) has become one of the least helpful of the boatin webb site and remains very un openboater friendly. Walden Ridge or Ashville Area Boating beta is head and shoulder above and beyond American Kayaker for good accurate and more importantly up todate information.
About Summer boating: Of course the Ocoee is all summer long, creeks are a little harder to have in the Summer, however the Green Narrows does run in the summer, I have been told it is officaly a class IV run now of days, but reguardless it is still fun and I know how to get there. Remember the first time I did it in 1989 I was in an Encore which is like only 3 feet shorter than your boat, but it only has one seat. If you went I bet you would have the record for the longest boat to ever put on the narrows, and if you got the boat off the river that would be another record.
-
Longboatin
- CBoats Addict
- Posts: 435
- Joined: Wed May 04, 2005 5:30 pm
- Location: Nor' side - Pittsburgh, PA
Def great sites... louie checked yer Bullet writeup on Walden site - that shite was darn sick - once wood removed u'd defintely have a slightly pleasanter time - hats off tight lookin run - maybe more volume would fill up the 1ft. pool deeper for a nicer landing. Changed my mind, think id want two 1 ft vipers, one for each foot, and a parachute. -
Thanks for release info.
Thanks for release info.
-
Louie