Swift Water Rescue Incident Report
Section 3: Chattooga River, SC
Fall 2004

Trip Report: Flood Stage River, Chattooga River, SC
By Canoeist X

Last Wednesday after all of the rain from Hurricane Frances came through, (Boater 1), (Boater 2), and I were looking for something fun to run. The problem was somewhat different from the usual lack of water issues one might expect in September in the Southeast. We'd hoped for Overflow creek, but this day it was way too high for mortals. We figured Big Panther Creek (put in right before you get to Tallulah Falls) would be good to go, but when we got there it was at its higher range of runnability, and it was still raining. The crawdad in the parking lot was our final sign that we shouldn't run this (bad decision, some other friends ran it a couple hours later and one described it as the best clean, fun class IV creeking he's ever done. At that level it supposedly gets boney much lower than that and really pushy much higher).

So, we decided that we would run Section III of the Chattooga at 8ft or so. The highest I had been on any section of the Chattooga was 2.6 or so. I've run section IV at that level several times, and it was big fun. An additional 5.5-6 ft water in a riverbed makes a huge difference though (11,000 cfs vs 1,400 cfs!!!) Therefore we decided to leave section 4 alone that day and run section 3 instead. (Boater 1), (Boater 2), and I walked down to the Bull (Bull Sluice Rapid) to take a gander at one of the most impressive holes I've ever seen. I won't even try to describe it.

This should have been a warning/wakeup call, and it did serve to get my attention, but the line here really wasn't that hard (I mean if ten 30ft tall trees in a row can hit the right line surely I can too right?!?)

In talking to (Boater 2), who had done it before around this level, this was one of only a couple really bad places, the others being Dick's Creek, Sandy Ford, and the Narrows. The rest is just big easy roller-coaster wave trains. While I don't blame any of what happened on (Boater 2), it was all 100% my fault, it is important to remember that (Boater 2) is one of the most incredible paddlers in the world, and has run many serious, big-water class V runs such as the Niagara Gorge (100,000+ cfs), the north fork of the Payette in Idaho, and Cherry Creek in California. My big water resume is highlighted by the Upper Gauley at 4,000+ cfs, a mere 7,000 or so less than what we were dealing with today! Sometimes it's important to remember that one person's idea of a good time is another's idea of sheer terror!

At the put in, the river was out of its banks, hauling tail through the trees. Big roller coaster wave trains began, and I began to get a little less nervous. This really was fun! Soon (like 10 minutes or so maybe!) we were seeing the signs of Dick's Creek rapid up ahead. One clue was Dick's Creek itself over on river left. It looked like it was dumping another 1,500-2,000 cfs of water into the river. Dick's Creek Ledge was a disgusting, river-wide terminal hole. Really, Really nasty looking. However, there was an easy line right down the river right bank, a straightforward tongue that's about 2 boat widths wide or so. (Boater 2) ran it fine, I went next in my canoe.

One thing my scouting failed to reveal was that right above the rapid the river came around a little jog. I was right on the bank, but as it went out around this jog, all of the sudden I was 10 feet away from the river right bank, and about 7 or 8 feet right of the safe tongue through the hole. I turned the canoe sideways, and tried to make it move to the right, and was barely able to. However I dropped over the next hole still kinda sideways, it didn't stop me, but did fill me up so it took me forever to find a safe place on shore to eddy out and dump my boat. After getting rid of all the water I waited, and waited and waited. I'd blown my whistle once to let (Boater 2) and (Boater 1), and our two kayaker friends know I was okay, but didn't know if they'd heard me, and didn't want to keep blowing the whistle and have them think I was in trouble.

Finally, 20 minutes or so later I saw the two kayakers come by. They were far out in the middle of the current though, and didn't see me as I tried to get their attention. I peeled off after them, assuming that I'd missed (Boater 1) and (Boater 2)(the kayakers had been following them all day so far). As I got to the top of the next rapid in the middle of the current, I realized that (Boater 1) and (Boater 2) were not ahead of me, and that this rapid was not just continuing roller coaster wave trains. Big holes and diagonal exploding waves were all I could see all the way around the next bend in the river. I wanted to stop and scout and wait for (Boater 1) and (Boater 2), but unfortunately I was in the middle of 20+ mph current with only 20 or so feet until the rapid and no way out!

I was on the right side channel of the river (where 90% or so of the H20 went around an island). I was on the river left side of this channel. Coming off the bank of the island about 30 feet or so was a huge diagonal breaking wave. I was headed straight towards this, and new I had no chance of getting past it without getting flipped. I tried my best to move to the left, and got within 5 feet or so of missing it, but couldn't. I straightened up and tried to punch it, but sure enough it flipped me. I set up to roll, got about ¾ of the way up, and flipped again, not getting a breath. This happened about 5 times, only getting one or two breaths. I was trying to roll on the upstream side, and in this powerful of water it just wasn't happening.

Unfortunately, to roll on the downstream side I’d have to have rolled lefty, which I can only barely do in a pool, so I didn't bother to try. I even tried to paddle the boat under water to turn it so I was rolling downstream righty, but this didn't work either. Finally, out of oxygen, I pulled out of the boat, terrified that I didn’t know what I was swimming, or where any help was, but when you can't breathe your body starts to make decisions for you!

I came up, thought I had a breath, but got a wave instead. This was the first time I swallowed water. I looked around, and I was fairly close to the river right bank, which I started swimming towards and making progress. However, as I got closer I could see that I was heading straight towards an enormous tree-pile. I had to swim for all I was worth back to the center of the river, the last place I really wanted to be, just to get away from it.

I rounded the bend I could see from the top of the rapid when I was still in my boat, and still couldn’t see the end of the gigantic waves and holes. By now I've swam through one hole, holding onto my grab loop of my boat to pull me out with one hand, my paddle with the other. I’ve also swallowed more water, and am considerably weaker than when I entered the water. I could see an island downstream, with several huge trees broached sideways on it, I was headed straight towards this. I knew I had to get away from it, but couldn’t make myself move. As I got closer and closer to the island my feet started dragging the bottom, this was the first time I’d touched anything solid since the start of the swim (except for the occasional tree floating by!). I was swimming on my stomach, so I could get more power. Until now foot entrapment had been the least of my worries. However now, I'm getting dragged over rocks, in 20+ mph current (I'm guessing with the MPH, but we were flying, that much I can promise). The rocks were beating the crud out of my knees, and it is a wonder after looking back at what I swam over that I didn’t get a foot entrapment. Still though, I'm heading for this tree pile on the island in front of me, without the strength to swim to avoid it. All of the sudden, I look up and there is a stunningly huge wave about to break over the top of me. I’m talking 10ft over my head as I drop into the trough of it.

At this point I’d pretty much given up. I’d swallowed more water than I drink in a week, my legs and arms weren't working, my high-float PFD was the only reason I was getting any breaths at all. I did get a really deep breath before I went under the wave, and when I popped up 20ft downstream of it I was 15ft clear to the river right of the island! This was the first semi-good thing that had happened all along. However, as I looked downstream I realized where I was. Remember how I said there were only couple of really bad spots on the run. I was at Sandy Ford, the bottom of which holds a hole that legends are made of. I was swimming straight towards this. I looked around, said a prayer, worried about my dog being locked in my truck at the put in, and prepared to meet my maker. I probably could not have taken even one recirculation at this point, and looking at the hole I was headed towards, there wasn’t much of a chance of not getting recirced at least once. It was at this point that God decided to make his presence known.

I looked to my left, and only a few feet away was my boat. I swam for all I was worth to it (not much at this point), finally abandoned my paddle (which I didn’t even realize was still in my hands) and climbed up on top of the upside down stern of my boat. We hit the hole and it was like a brick wall. It stopped me and knocked me off the back of the boat. My boat seemed to be pulled out of the hole, barely slowing down. I was somehow able to hold on to my grab loop, and the boat pulled me out of the hole, only keeping my underwater for a few seconds. This hole, at least from my fish-eye view seemed to be bigger than the hole at the bull, but I could be exaggerating. To come out of it as easily as I did though, somebody was watching over me for sure.

Finally as I looked around, I realized that I was in relatively flat, slow moving water, and still had my boat, and my paddle was only a few feet away from me. I managed to weakly dog paddle to shore, and one of the kayakers who witnessed the swim helped get my boat and paddle on the bank. I crawled ½ out of the water and laid there for many minutes, that was when the burping and puking of water started, this lasted for some time too. I looked up and saw (Boater 1) swimming out of the bottom hole, and realized that I’d been ahead of the two of them the entire time.

Somewhere in the middle of all this, a C-1 slalom paddler who I've seen paddle before (and is very good) came walking up with his glass C-1, broken in half. I said you must have tried hard to find enough rock to break a boat like that today and he said no, that wasn’t a rock that was a wave/hole at the narrows. At that point my mind was made up to walk out. The C-1 paddler and I walked about 3.5 miles, uphill, back to our cars at the put in. I left my boat and gear to come back later and get. I’ve never enjoyed a 3.5 mile, uphill walk as much as that one!!!

(Boater 1) says the swim was only a ¼ of a mile but to me it seemed more like 2 miles. I’m sure it will be closer to my number than his as the story gets retold by me at the campfire!!!! The stretch that I swam reminded me a lot of Lost Paddle on the Upper Gauley at higher water, around 4,000 cfs or so. I am truly thankful to have come out of this alive! It has shaken me up considerably. I didn’t paddle anything else that weekend, even with all of the great water options. I need to get on something a bit easier and start working on building my confidence back up.