Day #9, Marsh and Rottenwood Creek

WOW!........is all I can say. Today Atlanta received a nice afternoon shower that brought up the local microcreeks. I had never paddled any of the metro creeks (Rottenwood, Marsh or Sope). I had always assumed that the water quality was bad and there wouldn't be enough gradient to create anything really fun to paddle. I could not have been more wrong........well about the river quality not the water quality. :) I was shocked at how big and pushy Marsh and Rottenwood were today. I met up with local "metro creek" expert Bryce and his buddy Kirk. We hit Marsh first and it had two nice ledge/drops and big wave trains. We were able to do a second run, but the water had already dropped a foot and a half. After the second run we decided to go check out Rottenwood. Bryce thought Sope might be too high; it has a reputation for having some horrible hydraulics. We got to Rottenwood and it was high (over 7 feet) as well, but Bryce, who hadn't really paddled it much, didn't think much of the level. Once on the river, we were shocked by a huge slide that fed into a giant hydraulic. Bryce got caught in it and eventually was able to surf his way out. I barley punched though it. I had to dig (paddle) my way out after the hole stood my Nomad 8.5 straight up! Kirk came down into the hole and almost ran Bryce over, but made it out. After the big hole we had non stop wave trains and reactionaries for about 1/2 mile. It calmed down for a short time and as we were about to turn a corner some folks walking along the trail warned us to see what was coming up. Not being too prideful we took their advice and we're glad we did. It was a huge rapid. Starting left going over a ledge punching two holes/hydraulics then make a quick ferry to the right into two 10 foot standing waves that led to a wave train run out. It looked big and pushy, but doable. I led the way making all the moves, but did not realize how big those two waves were. After the first wave I found myself nearly vertical and then dropping straight down and quickly climbing up the second wave, which I did not make up. I got typewritered to the left and then ferried back to the middle to run the rest of the rapid. The creek continued for another mile of non stop class IV boogie water. We eventually made it to the Metro Hooch confluence where we were met by another nice size hole which Bryce decided to surf and ...........................well.............I'll let him tell you. ;)

All in all the best day so far during the VC. I am in LOVE with Rottenwood. I am looking forward to more fun tomorrow and hitting some rivers with Bret. Oh yeah, the second best part of the runs was that my girlfriend was waiting for us at the takeout with double cheeseburgers.

Jason