Special thanks to Steve Zerefos for
making the map.
From Paul Hubbard.
Richland is basically a combination of watersheds coming together in a beautiful surrounding. Morgan Creek, Polebridge and Henderson Creek combine forces to make up Richland. Which is a blessing because of all the mergers, Richland holds its water really well, almost to the point it runs as much as the Tellico during a good rain event pattern.
This gem of a run was first paddled by Ron Stewart and Doug Wellman in 1991, and later open boated by Mike Cawood in an Edge of all things. Also another nice aspect of Richland is that you don’t need a shuttle. This makes it great for afternoon runs for the local paddler, and great for a mid-week run for the out-of-towner who might have trouble finding mid-week paddlers. You park at the take-out and hike almost two miles up. Well it’s not even really uphill, the town of Dayton at the turn of the century had a small reservoir in the stream, that held drinking water, and a piping right-of-way that supplied the town is now a hiking trail beside the creek. It’s almost flat until you get to the reservoir. The trail is now part of the new Tennessee State Linear Park, which will be eventually part of the Cumberland hiking trail.
The put-in and take out:
When only running Richland, your put-in and take-out areas are the same.
You need to look at your Tennessee gazetteer atlas, and find Dayton Tennessee on page 24, then look for Back Valley Road, from Hwy 30 leaving Dayton heading towards Pikeville TN from there, once on Back Valley Road you will see a small white sign directing to you the Pocket Wilderness area, this is the same area you will paddle. The sign gets knocked down sometimes, so another landmark is small white church. Across from the church is a dirt road going up a hill. Take this road.
Here is the sign at the Church
Look for this sign to the road that leads to the
Richland take-out
This is also the take-out for Morgan Creek, Polebridge, Paine and Henderson Creek. You really can have plan A, B, C, D, and E when paddling this watershed. Down the street in Graysville, is the Roaring Creek watershed , so there are plenty of things to do.
Gages:
The gauges are located at the bridge that crosses Richland Creek in Morgantown, near Dayton, which is also on Back Valley Road.
There are two gauges.
The old gage is painted on the bridge.
The new gage is at the bridge also but just upstream. Its min. level is -7”
There is now an Internet gage tie-in to see if it’s running via the internet
Here is picture of the gage:
The Run:
From Gavin Fay
So you pull into Laurel Snow Pocket Wilderness area and park, the Richland will be on your left. This is a run that you can bite off what you want, it has Class 5, 4, and 3 rapids. It is all trailside and the trail is wide and in good shape. The hike in if you go to the top where the first class 5 is between 1.5 and 2 miles. There are put-in's all along the trail so if you see a rapid you don't want to run just drop in below. If you put-in below the Class 5 S-Turn, there is a sweet drop just downstream from that put-in.
You have 2 options, run the left Alien Boof like drop, go for the big air or run a 10-foot slot on the right. After this the rapids are a mix of 3 and 4, but pretty constant with short moving pools in between. One of these rapids has a cave you go into to run the drop it was really cool. Near the bottom of the run is a solid Class 4, called Weirdo. Weirdo has a set up eddy at the top left, and there is a bit of an entrance that can throw you off-line for the main drop. The main drop can be pretty much run anywhere, although the cleanest line looks to be on the outside down the left. After Weirdo, there is a one more real rapid that has a fun boof on the left side.
From here you a pretty much done, climb out rest then hike up for another run.
With the major rapids described only:
Okay first hike up the trail, or paddle down from the other creeks.
Here is a picture of the reservoir rapid, it is the first real rapid on the Richland section:
You will first be at the reservoir; this will be your staging put-in area. Then right off the bat, you paddle over the dam and the first major rapid comes up and boy it’s a doozy. At high water, and it doesn’t take much, it can be an arse kicker. You run an s-turn in the beginning of your run, snaking thru the rocks then a horizon line appears and you need to get your speed back up pronto. This is a hole that lets you think you have made it. Do not stop paddling, it wants to suck on you (in a bad way), and then stuff you into the undercut on the right (in a worse way) and this hole has been thoroughly explored. Trust me its dark, deep and quiet with not much air (no comment... move along people). The rapid sort-of reminds me of Jared’s knee on the Tellico, but with penalty points to the left and right of you with tighter lines. Imagine Jared’s Knee from the Tellico <insert a mental image of an organ grinder monkey> then < inset a mental image of a friendly Gorilla that wants to be your friend > Now you understand.
Here is a pic of the first major rapid with the approach to the undercut
Photo by Gavin Fay
Here is the undercut
Photo by Gavin Fay
Here is a screen shot of the first major rapid
Scene from Falling off Walden's Ridge
Paddler Francis Mallory
Here are 3 pictures showing the top to the bottom of s-turn aka organ grinder........................................................
Here is a close up of the same undercut...slightly different angle
The slide
The slide is in the middle section...
Screaming Left Turn (Holy S.L.T.)
After this you will run some creeky lines that aren’t minor in nature. Then you will see another horizon line, this is a good place to scout. This rapid is like a mini Chili Pepper off of Morgan Creek but without the, boat bustin’, back breaking, head crackin’ consequences of Chili Pepper. Haven’t run Morgan yet? Well here is some good line practice. You run S.L.T.by turning while boofing a drop, then turning your boat on an accelerated edge after an immediate landing, to get your forward speed back up. The rapid is good creekin’ practice for perfecting your strokes, also the rapid is somewhat mentally intimidating; so its good practice for your mental game also. The rapid is not that hard to walk back up in the streambed, so you can paddle this until you get it right.
Screaming Left Turn
Photo by Vincent Beasley of paddler Paul Hubbard
Rapid after Screaming Left Turn
Photo by Vincent Beasley of paddler Paul Hubbard
Paddler Matt Saul picture by Gavin Fay
Here is a downstream shot of Holy S.L.T.
Here is the left line....you can go right here too.
Paddler Terran Viehe Photo by Gavin Fay
Paddler Terran Viehe Photo by Gavin Fay
After this Richland doesn’t let up, and you will run even more creeky lines, and then on river right, Morgan Creek appears and adds more water…and that ain’t good, hee-hee. This added water combines with the bigger boulders that constrict the run and makes the rapid Weird-O. Here you have two options. One is to run river left, and avoid a lot of the meat of the drop that is coming up and continue on if you nail the tight line. The hero line is to eddy hop the top of the run. Then eddy out mid river right, and take the rapid head on.
Here is a picture of Weird-O
