Narrows of the Yadkin

 

Narrows of the Yadkin

by Zach Schiada

A Spectacular Lake Paddle And Possibly the Best Piedmont Whitewater We Can’t Paddle.

 ∞  Recently, I took advantage of a rare opportunity (for me) to paddle the Falls Reservoir, which is partly in a location on the Yadkin River formerly known as “The Narrows”. This was a lovely lake paddle, probably my favorite flat water trip to date. I don’t do a lot of lake paddling and driving two hours for a flat water trip is unusual for my paddling habits. I do try to get around to different waterways as often as possible and I was inspired by a recent video by Pete Beck with River Kings, where he paddled this lake. Because of the distance from my home, I had never been able to justify the drive for myself or been able to convince my wife to do a family trip here. When I normally travel more than an hour from my house, I’m driven by the thrill of exploring a river or creek with rapids. Usually I will wake up around 4am so my adventure can be over in time to spend the rest of the weekend with the family. 

The weekend of my trip to Falls Reservoir, however, my wife was out of town and I had the four kiddos all by myself. It was the perfect opportunity to get in a lake paddle and I had the luxury of spending as much time away from the house as needed with the added benefit that the house would not be destroyed from the kids eating too much sugary foods and throwing toys all over the place. We loaded up in my little VW Golf TDI to save on fuel, drove the two hours and hiked down to the lake from the Deep Water Camping access. The day was a great one and the gamble with the car on the bumpy 7 mile dirt forest road had paid off with only a third of a tank of fuel burned off when all was said and done. We had a good old family adventure filled with paddling, rope swinging, sightseeing and rock jumping. The sights of the lake and Narrows Dam were spectacular and my kids and I now have a great memory to hold on to.

As it stands today, there are approximately 2.4 miles of the Yadkin River in this section that can be paddled unimpeded from the base of Narrows Dam down to the Falls Hydroelectric Dam. Both of these dams are active hydroelectric power generators with Narrows putting out 110.4 Megawatts and Falls putting out 31.1 Megawatts. According to Cube Hydro’s Website (the current owner of both hydroelectric dams), the combined generation between the two is enough to power 58,265 homes for a year.

Most will paddle this section as an up and back trip from the Falls Reservoir boat launch, a 2.25 mile paddle each way or the Deep Water Camp Trail to Narrows Dam, a 1.5 mile trip each way.

The reservoir varies from around 100 ft wide to about 1000 ft wide in areas, and is the smallest of the Yadkin River’s reservoirs. The dams have created some significant depth (up to 200 ft) to the reservoir that, as we saw on our trip, is abrupt in many places along the shoreline creating cliffs. If jumping from such cliffs is something you enjoy doing, make sure to check the depth since some were right next to submerged rocks. Water impounded from the Falls Dam backs up the entire distance when full. 

Contrary to my assumptions from our trip, lake elevation levels don’t play a major role in whether there are rapids to play in below the Narrows Dam since water is regulated pretty well. However, during a full release, class 2-3 current emerges with a nice glassy, green wave for surfing with eddy service on either side to paddle back up. I contacted Keith Hendrickson with Cube Hydro, who turned out to be a fellow paddler since the 1970s. He advised that there is no set schedule for such releases since everything is automated based on river flows coordinated with all of the dams in the Lower Yadkin River area at High Rock, Tuckertown, Narrows and then Falls, which are all managed by Cube Hydro. However, the historical flow rate of the releases for Narrows Dam can be found here in order to give some hints on when one might be able to catch this area with a generation flow or to avoid it if preferred. Based on the latest trends at the time of this writing, it looks like late afternoon to early evening are the best bet to catch a release. A horn will sound indicating that a release is about to happen.

We also saw some interesting streambed on the river left channel, just below the spillway for Narrows Dam, which I speculated would create some whitewater features with enough water spilling over, but there are visible spots with rebar sticking out of the rocks, creating a high potential for safety hazards. After our trip, I checked with friends familiar with this side, and I’m told this channel creates advanced whitewater features when there is enough water flowing down the spillway. A friend of mine, Adam Hale says he has paddled this channel, but only once due to the rebar and the possibility of being impaled. While I was unable to find any photos or video of this side being run with decent flow, Discover Uwharrie’s Facebook page has a neat video of what this area looks like at exceptionally high levels here.

On our trip, the lake was just a half foot under full elevation at 363.48 ft. There was no dam release and to our disappointment, the dam diversion tunnels, which were somewhat of a social media sensation to paddle in a few years ago, were gated off as No Trespassing. Cube Hydro emphasized again in an email that this area is off limits and violators will be prosecuted for entering.

Despite the lack of whitewater activity that day and the tunnels no longer being accessible, we still found plenty of adventure and each of my kids agreed that the two hour drive was worth the sights and work to paddle up and back. They had a great time and if anyone reading this happened to have been fishing that day, I apologize for the loud noises heard when the Schiada Family Circus came to town.

As far as the Falls Dam is concerned further downstream, this can be seen by launching from the Morrow Mountain Boat Ramp and paddling upstream about 1.3 miles. I have not launched here, but Guy Spiher sent me a photo of when he and Evan Spiher paddled this area.  Another friend, Paul Yow, mentioned to me he saw Falls Reservoir once when water levels were extremely low. He saw several ledges including a 4 ft high drop close to the upper side of this dam. Below, I’ll talk about what this might have been prior to the river’s impoundment.

Yadkin Narrows Prior to Dam Construction

Unlike previous articles I’ve written on Piedmont rivers prior to dam construction, both the Falls Dam and Narrows Dam were built long before putting a boat in rapids on purpose was a thing that was widely accepted as a recreational pursuit. Narrows Dam was built in 1917 and Falls Dam was built in 1919. However, occasionally photos pop up online that show what the Yadkin River looked like prior to dam construction that look interesting. Great Outdoor Provision Company’s website hints that this may have been the best whitewater in the Piedmont. I decided that this claim was worth at least investigating and learning a little bit about the Yadkin River’s history.

The best resource that I have found to describe what the river was like prior to the construction of the two dams comes from Papers on the Waterpower in North Carolina: A Preliminary Report by Geo. F. Swain, J.A. Holmes and E.W. Myers in 1899. The authors were given the task of investigating all of the state in search of hydroelectric opportunities since advancements in this technology had boomed in the late nineteenth century. I have been reading through their report for the past several months after receiving a recommendation from Rich Ruhlen to read this as a source for river history prior to dam constructions in the state. I have been fascinated with the history as well as found some leads on places to explore throughout Central North Carolina. The authors were excited about the same things we get excited about in whitewater paddling: water flow and gradient. Just as most paddlers are aware, the biggest opportunities for rainfall and significant gradients within North Carolina were found in the Appalachian Mountains with the Dan, Linville and Watauga Rivers receiving a good bit of attention among many other mountain streams. 

Despite the significant gradients mostly centering on the higher elevations in the Western North Carolina mountains, however, the authors focused a great deal on the Yadkin River Narrows, which offered a truly unique geographical opportunity for their interests in hydroelectric power. You can sense their giddiness on the prospect of utilizing the flow and drop of this short stretch of river by the descriptions provided in the report and they mention this section of the Yadkin as “perhaps the most remarkable waterpower in the state”. 

The river was funneled through a rocky gorge perpendicular to the water with violent turbulence between some minor hills within the Uwharrie Mountains and deep water for reliable flow. For the next couple of miles following the Narrows, the river mellowed out a bit before gradient picked up again at the site of Harris’ Mill (now around the Deep Water Camp Trail) and then approaching the now Falls Reservoir Dam. The river widened a bit to a range of 150 to 300 ft in width, but still confined to the steep rock walls of the gorge, and a series of falls known as Little Falls and then Big Falls were present before the constriction and gradient eased up approaching the confluence with the Uwharrie River and forming the Pee Dee River. The entire section from the top of the Narrows to the mouth of the Uwharrie River was 91 ft of drop over 5.5 miles or about 17 ft/mile from the top of Narrows to the Uwharrie River confluence with the bulk of the gradient in the beginning and end near the now standing hydroelectric dams.

According to Douglas L. Rights in his book A voyage down the Yadkin-Great Peedee River, “No person had ever gone through alive. Casualties by accident had been reported” in reference to the Yadkin Narrows. He and some rotating companions had travelled down river in three separate trips in a small metal rowboat on the Yadkin River from Wilkesboro, North Carolina to the origin of the Pee Dee River where the Uwharrie joins and he continued all the way to Georgetown, South Carolina where the Pee Dee meets the Atlantic Ocean. 

Their trip on lower sections of the Yadkin River was made in 1926, after construction on the Narrows and Falls Dams were completed. However, he did have some interesting information on the Narrows Dam, including some history on its planned construction by the French company L’Aluminium Français, which had cleared land for building a bit further upstream of Narrows Dam at the top of the mountain for the power station. They abandoned the construction on the power plant in 1914 since many workers shipped off to France for World War I, but operations marched forward on the dam and power station with the acquisition by Alcoa (Aluminum Company of America) the following year. Part of the plans changed with a relocation of the power station to its current location, but according to Rights, Badin the town maintained a “foreign air” from its French design including its layout with winding streets and sharp corners.

One interesting story from Rights’ book was of a man that gave up swearing during the dam’s construction.  He had lost focus on watching out for a coworker while going off on a profane rant filled with heavy use of curse words, while his coworker fell from the dam to his death. The worker swore he would never swear again after that. Rights also describes the Alcoa’s aluminum manufacturing plant, which was a mile west of their Dam as pristine, where workers would bathe at work every day after their shift and he commented on the general cleanliness of the building.

Because Rights made his trip to Badin after the construction of the Narrows Dam, he and his companion were given a ride to bypass the whole rugged section of Falls Reservoir, where they lamented the change in the river’s name to the Pee Dee. However, before this, he does mention a very challenging set of rapids approaching the town of Badin, which he survived with some bruises and a few out of boat experiences. He referred to these as the “Upper Narrows”, and later found out this was the series of rapids known as Bald Mountain Shoals (8.5 ft drop in ½ a mile) and Mott’s Falls (13.5 ft drop in 0.8 miles). Both of these are now impounded by Tuckertown Reservoir. While the scope of what I’m writing is focused on the Yadkin Narrows below Palmer Island further downstream, I felt the author’s account of what he calls the “Upper Narrows” is relevant to include as another part of the river in the vicinity with extinct rapids from dam impoundment. From his account and the 1899 report, it is apparent that there is additional whitewater treasure now buried by lake water in the Lower Yadkin beyond what is at Falls Reservoir and Badin Lake. 

Returning to the topic at hand, the chart below summarizes the drop from the top of the Yadkin Narrows proper down to the confluence with the Uwharrie River. This is a re-creation of the same chart in the 1899 report and below this is a topographical map with a location for where each whitewater feature should have been based on the distances they mentioned.

While there is little in terms of rapid descriptions other than gradient, surrounding geography and water depth, it is evident that what existed within what is now Badin Lake and Falls Reservoir was an anomaly for the region. The North Carolina piedmont still offers short bursts of high gradient in areas such as the Little River (Eno Tributary), Haw River, Deep River, Rocky River (Deep Tributary) and the lesser known Little Uwharrie River, but these rivers do not offer the same reliable flow of water year around like the Yadkin River does. This is further emphasized by the surrounding geography, which funneled the river from a wide point to a narrow one like the Yadkin Narrows. Who knows if we will ever get to experience these extinct rapids in our lifetime with the dams serving a purpose as clean, reliable energy for the surrounding communities, but I enjoy the thought of daydreaming of what opportunity there is should this ever change.

References:

Papers on the Waterpower in North Carolina: A Preliminary Report by Geo. F. Swain, J.A. Holmes and E.W. Myers, 1899.

A voyage down the Yadkin-Great Peedee River by Douglas L. Rights, 1929.

Eagle Creek/Cube Hydro Website: Yadkin River Hydroelectric Project | Eagle Creek Renewable Energy 

Streamflow Page for High Rock and Narrows: waterqualityandflow.com/WQ/Specialized_Flow.aspx 

Yadkin River State Trail Map: YRST Map 32923 

Great Outdoor Provision Company: Falls Reservoir | Great Outdoor Provision Company – Great Outdoor Provision Co. 

 

Additional communications and contributions from: Rich Ruhlen for the lead on the 1889 report, Pete Beck for YouTube video inspiration, Guy Spiher for photos and information, Gary Cousino, Adam Hale, and Paul Yow for river/lake information. Keith Hendrickson with Cube Hydro dam release and Narrows tailrace wave details. Video on the Narrows Spillway rapids from Discover Uwharrie’s Facebook page. Special thanks as well to Lewis P. Bramlett for permission to use historical photos from the Stanly County History Center Collection Facebook page.