Water
Quality (1 bad 3 good)
Scenery (1 bad 3 good) 
Class IV.4
Length 3 Miles
Avg. Gradient 160 fpm
Max Gradient 360 fpm
Put-in:
Cheohala Skyway
Take-out
Turkey Creek Bridge Tellico River
Internet gage:
Please see our flowpage
Paddler's gage:
E.L.F. Level 4.5 ft (1500 cfs)
Med-Low 5.0ft (1800 cfs)
Med 5.5 ft
Perfect 6 ft or higher
Overview:
This run was first run by the Rose Brothers of the old
Dagger Harriman days (OC-1 and K-1) and Billy Burkhalter
(K-1) in 1995
It's a 3 mile run with 1/2 of it being flat-water, from
there the action picks up. The run is loaded with
strainers, if you are a Tellico boater and expect no
trees and portaging this isn't your run. Once the action
picks up the drops start, boof make a move then plan
another course of attack. Most are manky.
There are some good ones and they will all go with the
right amount of water. The problem is trees. Most seem
to be be right where you need to be.
This run since first explored in the early 90's, holds
its trees. Epic floods come and go yet the trees stay.
Most run this one once and don't come back.
Comments from Dooley Tombras:
"I did Turkey Creek from Cherohala Skyway last
year. It was great but it was horrible. 20 awesome rapids and 16 of them
have wood so it was a portagefest and we barely got out before dark. I
would call it IV-V with a few solid V's. It is 1.5 miles of flat water and
beaver dams and then maybe a little over a mile of game on microgorge steep
creekin with wood on every corner...
It's the closest I've ever come
to not making it out of a run before dark. We
underestimated the time it would take to do the run due
to the portages. Some of them are time consuming
because the micro gorge is TIGHT! It's so steep that
you can't portage at river level, you have to climb 30
ft up the mountain and portage on a steep slope back
down to river level. We had to use ropes on a couple
of the portages.
It's too bad. That run would be classic without the
wood. We were shocked at how high quality and aesthetic the rapids were.
They would make good pictures or video. Also, I think there are one or
two rapids that won't go at anything but super high water because they
land on rocks. I think we had 5 ft on the Tellico and I would have called
it a low-med level."
Camping:
Can be had at Baby Falls on the Tellico
