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Welcome to the world of Hike and Huck
Richland Creek:
The training ground
of Walden’s Ridge Whitewater.
Almost 2 +/- miles
in length
Backvalley Road
Class IV.6 (V.0 high
water)
Richand Creek in the Spring
Creek Overview:
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.
Gauges:
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 gauge is painted on the bridge. Its
min. is 0” and was dialed-in after a low water
run.
The new gauge is at the bridge also but just
upstream. Its min. level is 6”
There is now an Internet gauge tie-in to see if
it’s running via the internet
CLICK HERE
The Run:
With the major rapids described only:
Okay first hike up the trail, or paddle down
from the other creeks.
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 rapid:
Scene from Falling off Walden's Ridge
Paddler Francis Mallory
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 this rapid 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.
Here is a screen shot of the rapid:
Scene from Falling off Walden's Ridge
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 screen shot of Weird-O
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.
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.
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