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Personal Stories: Rocky Broad River RapidsKayaking the Rocky Broad River Class IV-V Rapidsby Jim Jamesson An inexperienced whitewater kayaker's guide to why you should get experienced: My good friend Eric just purchased an Aire Tomcat inflatable kayak. After paddling around with it a bit in the calm and warm waters of Lake Julian, he somehow let me talk him into taking it on some big whitewater... "what it was designed for" I told him. Reluctantly, he agrees, and off we go heading down 74 toward Chimney Rock and Lake Lure, right up the gut of the Hickory Nut Gorge. The entire drive down I hear short remarks on how we won't do anything major, and hopefully some class II or III. I offer my comfort saying how the Rocky Broad is not that big of a river, and the rapids are kind of silly... a good place to hone our skills. We finally arrive to the first pull off on highway 74, right inside the Rutherford County line. Eric shits a brick when he sees some of the rapids we are looking at, and tells me a dozen times how they are quite a bit bigger than Nantahala's. After walking around and finding a good put in spot, Eric begins to doubt why we are even here. 10 minutes of fumbling around trying to get him in the kayak, he is off. He hits the first rapid and goes out of site. A couple times over the next 10 seconds you see his head bob up and down until finally he is gone. Emerging a few seconds later, clinging to the side of the boat and beaten by rocks, he manages to swing into an eddy. I run down river and see and he is going crazy with excitement on this bad ass series of rapids. Exhausted from the run, and noticing there is no good take out point at this part of the river, I proceed to tackle the next big rapid. The first major hole, and the canoe like ducky is sucked under a rock, and completely submerged. I managed to climb out on a rock, and clipped one of the straps to the paddle for more leverage. As time goes by, your endurance goes down trying to hold back nature's forces. I managed to jump to the other end of the kayak and avoid being sucked downstream by the hydraulic. I found a rock to wedge my ankle under, and it gave me enough leverage to somehow twist the IK just enough to drain it. The more that was gone, the easier it was to dislodge. When Eric's new toy was freed, I needed to jump back on it in order to avoid swimming down the next set of big boulder rapids. Head first on the raft, the kayak starts tooling down the river. With a choice left or right, I of course, choose the wrong way, and manage to get stuck yet again. Leverage is the champion in this one, as I dunk my body in the front and free the kayak. From this point its just down a big ledge, with a vicious undercut that just sucks you in. The sharp jagged rocks beat and bang your body around, and the fast moving water is your friend at this point as it quickly washes away the blood... you don't even see it. The goal now is "make it to somewhere the water isn't white". Several hundred more feet of playing mother nature pinball, using every muscle to position and navigate the boulders, you reach a lull in the action. As the red water drains out from your seat, you can't help but smile in awe at the power. The force is cold, brutal, and means business. The rapids aren't forgiving, and worthy of incredible respect. How can you not love that! As I see Eric, he starts off telling me how he saw me stuck at one point, and how the Aire held up without a scratch. I tell him the A-Team juice I slipped him earlier in the day is the reason I talked him into doing this in the first place. Beer is on the list as soon as we step foot in the door. Another crazy day, another amazing display of stupidity hard at work. Now that, was a groovy adventure. Whitewater Information on the Rocky Broad River |
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