River Description

This was first tackled by Mark Cumnock and Michael Cawood in the April flood of 1993 when the Chick was too high. This one suffers from what I call Appalachian runoff; I'm not talking rain here. There are enough tires and old washing machines thrown off the side of the road to where you think the locals are trying to fill-in the tiny micro gorge one piece at a time. Be advised to wear hiking boots when entering the gorge - there is plenty of broken beer bottles to go around for everyone.

We put in where the two forks at the headwaters meet and become one. This one is short and sweet. The top cuts through layers of rock, and then it changes characteristics, gets a little faster and then becomes harder due to the gorge becoming more defined, but all the rapids will 'go'. The main problem we had, with it being such a tiny stream, are the trees, which can choke the run.

Instead of driving all over the place when other runs are too high and not getting to boat anywhere, this could be a place to go.



 

The following is from a post from Mark D's Alabamawhitewater.com Forum Board:

From Jan 16-19 2005

The post was a discussion about Little Soddy Creek; the conversation was between Mark Cumnock, and Ted Hayes.

Cumnock:

So what did you think of Little Soddy, I haven't talked to anyone who has run it lately, is the trash better? IT WAS LIKE A SUPER FUND SITE by the road. Does that hiking trail I saw on the web make it easy to get in there?

Hayes:

L Soddy is a SUPER FUND site, although no one has notified the EPA. It's disgusting. As of two years ago, we cut all of the wood out. Took about two good days. I think I've been two or three times since the first trip, which was boat assisted hiking, due to wood.
We had a pretty good turnout last weekend for the clean up @ Suck Creek. I'd like to try to get some interest in L Soddy, but there's a lot more trash, & a lot steeper bank to pull it out of.
I haven't checked out the trail yet, but I did see some marking tape on the last trip

Cumnock:

Check out these two links, you prob. already know about it, but it gives you perspective of other people's interest in what we care about too.

Could also be the help we need for the creek, but until the local necks understand it's not a dump, our work could be never ending. We ran it back in 91, and I remember more of the trash than I remember of the run....unbelievable the amount of trash.

Here are the links.

http://www.cumberlandtrail.org/

http://www.cumberlandtrail.org/soddy.html

Btw, Do you have any pictures of Little Soddy that could be downloaded for the AW site?

I thing the Chick gauge could be used for this run, I never saw it too high, when compared to the other runs around there.

Hayes:

I wish I did, (take a picture ed. note) especially of Amtrak. I just got a new Nikon, I'll try to get a few this winter.
I wouldn't be surprised if there was antique trash on the hillside. I've got a contact with the people that build the trail. I think that it really needs to be addressed.

I don't know if it really needs to be connected to the N Chick. The reason being is that if everything in Chattanooga is flooded, it's running. It ran a month or so ago when L Possum was stomping, it's pretty easy to tell. You can visualize it from the highway, if you know what to look for. I'd be shocked if it ever gets too high, I've seen some days where things were totally flooded, & it was only a descent medium level.