Ed Evangelidi and I, John Duke, will be leading a trip to explore tributaries of the New River in Virginia. The trip will be from May 3-10. Day-long trips will be from the 4th to the 9th. We will be targeting mostly class 2 creeks, with good gradient, and a little class 3 to spice it up. Neither Ed nor I have paddled any of these beauties.
I have scouted all the access points for 90% of these creeks and have all the data in map form. These are mostly large creeks to small rivers and hold their water fairly well. These are NOT class 2 creeks like the South Fork of the Shenandoah, but much busier creeks with gradients of 15-25FPM. I don’t have any plans on tackling strainer infested, 50+fpm, class 3++ micro-terrors.
The campground we plan on staying at is Stony Fork Campground. This is a National Forest campground with hot showers not far from Wytheville VA.
Here are some of our target rivers: From the North:
· Wolf Creek- 40+ miles of class 2+ to choose from. Gradients from 13 to 30fpm
· Big walker Creek- nearly 50 miles of class 2 to choose from. 10+fpm
· Little Walker Creek- 8 miles class 2-4, 20+fpm
· Sinking Creek- 20+miles, 20+fpm
· Little River (North)50+ miles, 5-20fpm, cl2 (3/4)
· Reed Creek (my least favorite)25+ miles, 7-15fpm, cl2 (3)
· Big Reed Island Creek- 25++ miles, 10+ FPM, class 1-3
· Little Reed Island Creek- 20+ miles, gradient 15+fpm, cl2 (#)
· Cripple Creek- 20+ miles, 20fpm, cl2
· Crooked Creek- 15 miles, 12+fpm, cl2+
· Chestnut Creek- 15+ miles, 20fpm, cl2
All these creeks are written up in Corbett's “Virginia Whitewater.” Many upper miles of these creeks are not in the guidebook. There are also many other small to medium creeks I’ve scouted in the area that are not in the guidebook. Low-water options would be sections of the New River. If there is better water to the North both the Bluestone and tributaries of the James are not too far away. To the South are the Forks of New, Southern Little River, Upper Clinch, and Forks of Holston.
Feel free to attend part or all of this exploratory trip.
John Duke
H=301-498-1175
C= 301-465-0091