Cooper Creek   Water Quality (1 bad 3 good) Scenery (1 bad 3 good)                                                                                                  Jim Little rail grinding on Cooper Creek Photo by Brian Collins   Cooper Creek, just like most of the other ridge runs is getting screwed over due to the Tennessee Legislature not passing the bill that would make rock harvesting illegal. Tennessee mineral rights abide here. Meanwhile Mountain Stone is hauled off to make Taco Bells in Florida and Atlanta.   Barker Camp Rd to Bowater Parking Lot Class IV-V+ 5 Miles Gauge Information Cooper Creek Barker Camp Rd to Bowater Parking Lot  IV-V+                                                                                       Huckin' Lother                                                                                                        Photo by Matthew Wallace      Paddler Ben Davis     Maps:   Watershed Map (to find location and size of creek) Click Here Special thanks to Steve Zerfos for making the map.   Topo Map: Click Here A special thanks to Randy Hale of NorthRiverGeographic for the map         Need Directions?                                              Click on the map below that was  provided and donated by                                                                                                                          Thank you Randy Hale for all of your hard work                       Not that this will make any sense - but I've built a database of creeks. This makes it very easy to uCellphonete. So if you can get or if anyone using the website has uCellphonetes - GPS Locations, Trails (like the spots on Cooper and Cain) I can place them on the map pretty easily.......   Randy   For localized map of North Chick /Cooper Creek click on the map picture to blow it up                                                Here are some grid maps provided by Randall Hale of NorthRiver  Geographic Click on it to blow it up to make it bigger...................             http://www.northrivergeographic.com/wrww/nchick_C5.pdf http://www.northrivergeographic.com/wrww/nchick_C6.pdf http://www.northrivergeographic.com/wrww/nchick_D5.pdf http://www.northrivergeographic.com/wrww/nchick_D6.pdf http://www.northrivergeographic.com/wrww/nchick_D7.pdf http://www.northrivergeographic.com/wrww/nchick_E5.pdf http://www.northrivergeographic.com/wrww/nchick_E6.pdf http://www.northrivergeographic.com/wrww/nchick_E7.pdf http://www.northrivergeographic.com/wrww/nchick_F4.pdf http://www.northrivergeographic.com/wrww/nchick_F5.pdf http://www.northrivergeographic.com/wrww/nchick_F6.pdf http://www.northrivergeographic.com/wrww/nchick_F7.pdf http://www.northrivergeographic.com/wrww/nchick_G4.pdf http://www.northrivergeographic.com/wrww/nchick_G5.pdf     River Description Contrary to other websites Cooper Creek is not a High water run. When Cooper is running  the North Chick Chick will be at a medium level, when it is, Cooper will be at a minimum level. This run was first explored by Tim Williams, Tom Bowen, and Jon "Lothar" Clarady. Later Jim Little in an Open Boat later paddled  the run in the video Steep Creekin" for an Open Boat first descent. Cooper Creek although just next watershed over from Cain Creek, and actually the same put-in area. Is quite the opposite from Cain and is more creeky in this authors opinion. The hike in seems not as bad and the paddle to the good stuff seems to come quicker. Once in the meat of the gorge you will have the feel of more snowboarding that a kayaking trip. You have more rocks to work with to boof, and as shown in the picture above, more rocks to rail grind on. Then in the meat of it all comes one of the best drops in the country, its clean and tall.                                                             Top view of Bedtime for Lothar                                                     Paddler Matthew Wallace  Photo by Ben Davis   Bedtime for Lothar is easy, straight forward , and is like land on pillows. The next drop is Last Temptation ,which is a cliff with water going over it, with a rock in the way. It is very photogenic , matter of fact the whole run is, and the creek goes into bedrock, so the scouting is easy and picture taking will leave you some for the wall. As of now it has been reported that the run is choked full of trees due to the Southern Pine beetle killing so many trees in the area.