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:

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 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........................................................

    

         

 

         

 

 

 

            

 

 

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

 

 

Here is a downstream shot of Holy S.L.T.........................................................................................................................

 

 

                                   

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

 

                               
 

                                                             Photo by Vincent Beasley of paddler Paul Hubbard

Morgan Creek boaters: beware at this rapid. I’ve heard more than one story of someone running the low water of Morgan to get on the “big water “ of Richland and confront this rapid tired. Most say “to h#ll with it” and “just run it” to get spanked and swim to the car. It makes a good time to reflect on your lot on life, while picking up the airplane wreck, you call your gear.
 

Here is the top view of Wierd-O................................................................................................................................

 

                

 

One other note: For the single paddlers reading this, late Spring and early Summer runs can be had here, which is a good thing, Bryan College coeds from Dayton sun themselves here frequently. Good luck getting them to talk to a stinky paddler though