Hear about groups doing Gragg Prong last night, and this morning at 730 I hear it was perfect medium, but may have dropped out fast after that as some who got there later said it was too low. Pretty crazy since Grandfather got 4.5 inches of rain.
Level-Watauga peaked at 6130 at 11pm and was 2370 this morning.
Boone Fork turned out to be wonderful. Lots of rapids, very busy. We had all the essentials, portages crawling though rodo, a bit of bleeding, boofing, brush in the grab handles, scouting, some strainers, and eddy hoping boat scouting.
Most groups were driving up through Hound Ears and up to Hebron Colony to a short hike in and boating down from there into Red Roof to take out at Ham Shop. We actually went all the way up to the parkway and put in. Sorry I did not check the bridge gauge to see if it is still there. I forgot. We had a group of 10 random folks who had not paddled together, so it was a bit hectic. The group was way too big, but it worked well and everyone stayed pretty disciplined and out of each other's way.
We put on around 12pm and the level was the low side of medium. We walked Hebron Rocks, but some of that is probably boatable on the left at higher water and with some wood work. We portaged 2 more big rapids where the Boone Fork Trail hits the river. The second one is definitely runnable, but very large. The river goes through a 8 foot slot over a burly 15 footer landing on a bit of a jumbled shelf, turning in the air, then plunging off another 15 footer. Beefy!
From there on we were mostly able to boat scout. There was only one tree, it was big and branch free, we ducked/got whacked. It is at the bottom of a rapid in the current. It can be seen from a river left eddy, but once in the eddy you would probably need a rope to get out. You would probably still be ok to get under it at higher water, but you will probably have to flip, and there is another rapid directly below.
Red roof was the high side of medium, the gauge is wrong. Someone said it is reading about 2 foot low. Tucker tried to die under a class II log and 3 folks got out above Red Roof, so it was beefy, but clear of wood and pretty forgiving. Hard to see and very intimidating because it is all so pushy and close together.
edgar
