Swift Water Rescue Incident Report
Cain Creek, TN
2003

Trip Report: Seive, Cain Creek, TN
By Kayaker X

Cain creek into North Chic about 5 years ago. There's a little rapid on Cain, just above the 10 foot waterfall known as big splat (or something like that). The rapid has a well known sieve on the left. The move is to start left, then catch an eddy on the right just above the sieve, then squeeze out of the eddy in a narrow slot that is to the right of the sieve (this puts you just above the little waterfall). You catch the eddy about 10 feet above the sieve. The sieve is obvious - water piles into a rock and disappears.

Trying to catch the eddy above the sieve, I leaned too far right while peeling into the eddy on my right and went over. I think I tried to roll once, but was so damn nervous because I knew I was in a bad place. I felt my boat hit the rock that is the top of the sieve. I thought "I'll pull my skirt as I grab my boat and pull myself up on top of the boat". This doesn't really make sense, I know, but it was all I had.

Of course, as soon as I pulled my skirt, I got sucked into the sieve. I saw light pretty quickly, swam to it and was out. Had there been any wood in there (which I am told there usually is) I would be dead. Somewhere in the process my helmet blew back and I had two good gashes on my forehead. As I popped out I swam to a mid stream rock and avoided swimming the ten footer, which was good because it lands on fairly thinly covered rocks. My buddy couldn't see that I came out of the sieve, the rocks blocked his view. I'm pretty sure he thought I was gone because he'd just seen my boat bobbing there for quite a while. Eventually we made contact. He came over, we taped up my head and walked out.

The main lesson to learn from this is to not run stupid lines. That rapid should be walked, or at the right levels, snuck through some scrapy slots staying right from the top (well away from the sieve). The sieve line is an easy move. But the consequences are obvious. Honestly, from the description I had read of that run, I had told myself I would not run that rapid. But, the first time I went I was with a group of hotshots, not all of whom were known to me, and I think I ran it to not look like a wuss. So, I got confident (it's really not a hard move) and I ran it on all subsequent runs until this incident.

Actually, for me, scary lines make me more nervous and more likely to do something stupid like leaning into an eddy too hard.

Another lesson (going back to my first time on that river that lead me to run that line) - Don't get pressured into running something you think is stupid. This is something to be aware of when paddling with better boaters who you do not know very well.

Another lesson- carry a good first aid kit. A head bleed with a two mile walk ahead of you is nerve wracking. It would have been worse had we not had anything to slow the bleeding.