On January 25, 2010 a group of southeastern paddlers attempted Upper Creek in North Carolina. Toby Macdermot was the only person to complete the river that evening in his kayak after accidentally running a portage. The rest of us ran out of daylight portaging Toby's drop and chose to hike out over running unknown class five in the dark. Toby's drop is huge and totally unrunnable due to two logs that are in play. How he managed to come through unscathed in his kayak puzzles the shit out of me, but he did.
View from the top of Upper Falls. This is a great alternative put-in and is at the pull-off for Upper Falls from the road (181). Once above the falls, you can ferry over and hike up river left to get four or five worthy drops.
Below here were two more good slides that were like the Toxaway.
Pat Keller on one of the cool drops before Upper Falls
I will definitely go back as there are plenty of good big drops and the portaging isn't bad, however, Upper Creek isn't a classic. Anyone looking for an exciting day on some new whitewater will enjoy Upper Creek. Use FR 982 as a takeout road. You can drive up a ways creekside to shorten the paddle out on FR 197.
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