Turtletown Creek is
a cool run, and mainly not for actual run itself.
Weird I know, but here is my reasoning and I will
admit I'm bias.
I'm biased for the fact the Brian Collins and I got
a first D on the run, but that's the tip of the
iceberg. I'm mainly more bias due to the fact I
spent a couple of summers up in
Ducktown ,Tennessee area trout fishing while
raft guiding on the
Ocoee River, and feel in love with the place.
It has
hiking trail beside it for the upper part, so
scouting is easy. The trail head is you're put-in,
near Farner, Tennessee and you will Forest Service
sign if you pay attention and the take-out is off
Forest Service road #23,and you will need minor map
reading skills, and is on page 26 of my Tennessee
Atlas Gazettteer. With today's access issues,
this makes it gem just for takeout and put-in alone.
Want a better reason? Turtletown has one of the best
watersheds in the area, I have trout fished in the
headwaters even in the pastures and caught nice
trout, and they love clean water. The headwater area
is in pastural land, and acts like a battery on the
streamflow, so the creek is slow to rise and fall,
and can be based off the Tellico River internet
gauge. As Ted Hayes pointed out to me and I agree
and have to mention, the river widens out after the
put-in, ,and narrows back up at the take-out, so the
water by visual only can be deceiving, so you want
descent flow at the put-in. The run is short too,
and nothing epic.
It has some really nice drops, not that many but two
that do situate out on their own and all are
straight forward creek boating rapids.
The first big one, is the first big one, named
Turtletown Creek Falls just like I said straight
forward creekin. But paddlers beware since it is the
first real drop of the run, and since the run is
pastural until it hits the trail head, it gathers
trees like a big toothpick holder. If the trees are
gone, at
Turtletown Creek Falls the drop will go. It's a
tough one, but with a strong group it can be run,
and it has been run. If the trees are there, well
you're off the hook and will want to walk. If you do
walk there are two options, the straightforward
point A-point B option is to portage on river left.
It is thick over there with
rhododendron and mountain laurel and
will test you, seeing how your gear will hang up on
everything and will be a test of wills to hang on to
your boat, while climbing over and under bushes and
not drop your boat into a abyss. The second
preference is to portage on river right, but this
takes you from the action, but is much easier
portage so it's really your call on that. If I was
on your trip...we would go river right, (I'm lazy)
River right also helps you protect the environment,
by not tromping all over 100+ year old laurel.
After the first big one you will paddle some
straight forward II-III stuff, and you will come to
a big horizon line, and there will be an island.
Take-out before the island to limit the pain in the
#$%^ factor for scouting. Your other hint will be
when you see the tops of trees. Relax, remember
straight forward creekin'. The name of this one we
named
Hourglass. (If you look at the picture Ken
Strickland posted on here it looks like an
hourglass, so hence the name) So get out of your
boat, and now the easy part, the hiking trail is on
river right, use it to scout. I recommend all
classes of boaters to scout this one. One for
safety, but mainly because the drop/slide is so
tall, that you need to scout to pick out landmarks
to line up on your way down the slide/ falls. Its
really like running two drops, and you can lose your
bearings.
Now past Hourglass is another slide , but after
running Hourglass it won't seem like much, might be
Class II-III?, then you will have one more
major rapid, and your landmark for this one is
the
Hiwassee Pipe, that is used for de-watering the
Upper Hiwassee. Also use the pipe for your
signpost for the takeout. Laps can be run here and
once you have it wired, running the big ones blind
will get your heart rate up for sure. Another option
is to paddle the
Upper Hiwassee if it is running after paddling
Turtletown, but it makes for a long day, and if you
want gradient, it's best to stick to running
Turtletown Creek.
Footage of this run can be seen on the video
Steep Creekin', but a note .The day we shot the
footage there was only two of us, and one camera,
and setting safety ropes was our precedence, so not
all the rapids are on that tape, but is gives you a
tease of what is in there.
If you are in the Ocoee River, Coker Creek, and
Tellico River area do yourself a favor and check out
Turtletown Creek. It's worth it, but like I said I'm
bias, and you will be too.
