Friday *AM* Middle & Lower Haw (intermediate)
| River: | Haw |
| Skill: | Intermediate |
| Trip Date: | 05/16/2025 |
On May 16 Larry Ausley, John McDonald, Christopher Mattocks, Diana Haywood, Alton Chewning, and Colin Harrington (and myself: Jason Jones) set out to link the Middle and Lower Haw sections near Pittsboro. Most paddlers were in whitewater kayaks, and Chris and I each piloted our individual OC2’s solo.
This report may be helpful to paddlers new to the river, and it may also be amusing to paddlers familiar with the motley crew.
Conditions: Levels were 2,300 CFS which comes in at the upper end of American Whitewater’s description for “low runnable” (1001 – 2,500 CFS). Most locals suggest the 1,500 CFS to be a reasonable entry level for these class II/III sections. With river forecasts we anticipated the possibility of levels exceeding 2,500 which is why the trip was styled as intermediate. In the 2,500 – 5,000 range these sections require noticeably more skill to enjoy safely.
Shuttle: We met at the Robseon Creek at 9am to arrange shuttle and were soon on the water. Most of our group launched just below the 15-501 dam, though Alton and Diana made the more prudent choice to avoid the mud and poison-ivy laden slip and slide at the dam, and we picked them up at Bynum beach.
Rare Species of Club Member Sighted: A brief hello was exchanged with Gary Cousino who was dropping a boat at Bynum Beach just as we left. We tried but failed to entice him to come downriver with us – he had his own paddling agenda involving conspicuous planks of wood in his canoe. Gary is one of the few open boaters you may have encountered or heard tale of on the Haw. He has shown many a paddler his own unique path in the Maze for longboats. You’ve got to get out to catch him on the river if you don’t know him, he isn’t on social media and is happy as a clam with his flip phone.
Middle Haw: The river level provided for nice boogie the whole way through. We had all play and no swims at Thunder Falls and S-Turn, two of the more technical (though short) rapids in this section. Plenty of good conversation was had, including discussion of the recent Raven Fork run up in Cherokee. A few paddlers were shown “the elevator” for the first time: a rapid river right down from Thunder falls where you run a drop with a very large, rounded boulder immediately to your right, eddy right behind it, attain up (river right of the rock), ferry river right and presto, chango you’re at the top of the little drop again. As time passed the two canoeists did start periodically going swimming to refresh from the rising temperatures that day. Chris stunned us all at the start of the Lower by the 64 bridge when he came closer than should have been possible under the laws of physics to successfully rolling his 16’ open canoe (he made it about 270 degrees with only a lone center bag for flotation).
Diana stepped out at the 64 takeout and waved us on.
Lower Haw: For those unfamiliar, the Lower Haw offers a new type of action from the Middle. A few rapids are both longer and more challenging, namely: Lunch stop, Gabriel’s Bend, and Moosejaw Falls. These rapids are sometimes run straight through, but are also frequent play spots to be dissected by paddlers looking to hone skills in ferrying, surfing, etc. Lunch stop was up first and finally surrendered the middle river right eddy to me in a longboat, something I’d aimed for and usually missed. Chris put on an admirable attempt at catching one of the narrower surf waves higher up, descending down backwards positioned river left in the rapid. Chris is an OC2 surf wizard if you don’t know, and while he did get some traction in there for a moment it was a short run and he came on down. Larry and John of course were dialing in some tight and efficient play routines throughout all of this, humoring the rest of us. Alton commented at one point, watching Larry, “Not a single wasted motion.” After the Lunch stop play we moved through Ocean Boulevard and 3’ falls respectively, I stayed left into Ocean Boulevard preferring the long run there for front and back ferry practice (I had an ACA L3 River Canoe assessment starting the next day and was out to sharpen my axe a tad this day). Larry, Alton, John and Colin went via 3’. We stayed river right approaching Gabriel’s, running the rapid just right of the logjam. Again Larry and John worked on threading some needlework in these spots. Gabriel’s seemed to give everyone a little of what they were looking for. Alton bombed a proud line right of center right in the wave train; Larry and John were eddy hopping. I made the optimistic plan to land my 16’ boat in the hero eddy river right inside Gabriel’s, which I didn’t quite stick and soon succumbed to the river right pull down to the clamshell boulder creating the infamous hole. I managed to get turned around facing the right way and I caught a glimpse of Larry getting hearty amount of amusement from my situation and I noted his running helmet GoPro (I can say his subsequent Facebook post was kindly edited to not make me appear entirely foolish in this spot). After Gabriel’s there was some surf time on the long wave by many, while Alton paddled over to rib me about my significant bailing task that was underway in the eddy above Moosejaw. I didn’t catch it all but I believe Chris ran the creek side and everyone else either ran the center line or followed him. I took “the slot” line river left in Moosejaw that is a flume drop with a prominent rock to avoid at certain levels.
A great day on the river in good company.