zachschiada

Trying to clear some space in my phone. Before I was kayaking, I skateboarded all the time. I still dabble, but not nearly as much. These are some clips from a diy skatepark that I went to a lot when everything was shut down during COVID.

I pumped up my DIY Packraft and headed down the Deep River at 15/501. I wanted to dry scout Little Buffalo Creek, which enters the Deep about 1/3 of a mile from the launch. It’s a pretty narrow stream, but would offer probably class II rapids throughout and a class III at the very end where there is a 4.5 ft stone mill dam. The Packraft was perfect for this sort of exploring, but if I ever run the creek at high water, I will need my hard whitewater kayak. Maybe at some point I’ll do a video on how I find these high gradient micro creeks. This one, luckily was not private property where I scouted, but it is further upstream. I turned around once I got to where private property started.

Aaron Vaughan and I wanted to run Paul Ferguson’s Section One of the Tar River. I wanted to tack on an exploration of Cattail Creek though since it drops about 29 ft in 1/3 of a mile. We didn’t have enough water for it to be fun, but it’s not too frustrating and would be a decent micro creek with near flood level rain. A couple portages and some strainers to dodge on the fly though. Probably not one I’d recommend necessarily, but not the worst creek for Central North Carolina. Sorry the camera cut off right when rapids started getting interesting. I didn’t get video of the Tar after, but it was a great class II section of river at 7.1 ft on the USGS gage at Tar River, NC.

Some raw clips of two trips I did with friends on the Rocky River. The first couple are on the Upper, which is closer to Siler City, NC. It is class II-III with lots of flat. The second set of clips are the Lower near Pittsboro. Water was low, but it’s such a fun run with features still present even at lower than ideal levels. In the clips are me and friends Michael and Jay.

Michael Merletto, Alton Chewning and I explored Richland Creek from Old Humble Mill Rd to Fairview Farm Rd. Level was too low for serious whitewater, but it was a good level for exploring. I’d say with a good rain this would be class II-III+ and one side of Mendenhall Falls would be class IV due to some pin potential. Careful on this one since the gradient is steep and private property is bordering almost the whole creek meaning portage/scouting could lead to problems. There’s also a really fun section further downstream from Picketts Mill Rd to Erect Rd and even all the way down to Riverside Rd with a little less action. Very fun under paddled micro creek in Central North Carolina.

Aaron Vaughan and I explored the upper part of New Hope Creek, putting on just above Hwy 86 in Chapel Hill, NC. We paddled up and down the tunnel under I-40 and then went down to the Falls of New Hope rapid, class III drop. The next clip is a maze of trees, class II+, then the powerline rapid and lastly the Big Rapid, also known as New Hope Falls. Level was low at around 48 cfs on the Cane Creek gage, which is used as a proxy for New Hope. Over 100 cfs is better, but it’s hard to catch. Video credit mostly goes to Aaron Vaughan.

Filmed by Brian Hamilton. They call this channel class III-IV, but safety wise it’s more like a II. I flipped at the bigger part and tore up my hands pretty good. Fun day at the ww center though. Maybe next time I’ll make it through without flipping.

I ran the breach drop with 1.25 ft on the USGS gage at Moncure, NC. A bit higher water and the hydraulic at the first ledge is very strong with a large boil line. The rapids below are only fun with a water level over 2 ft, but I’ve only felt comfortable running the drop at lower levels.

Just a few clips of me rolling my kayak at the beach in Emerald Isle, NC. My dad’s in the background talking business or something.

This is a little micro-creek drop that my kids and I found while hiking near our neighborhood. It’s a fun little class III that comes in if it has rained a lot. The first part is a preview of the whole drop at higher water and the second part is me running it the first time.