If a tree falls right next to your house do you hear it? Hell yeah you do!

Flat Rock Ice Storm 2010 from krushin'dreamz on Vimeo.

Now back to work.

John Grace is live on location in Dillsboro, NC with American Whitewater’s Jeff Paine reporting on the first day of removal of the Dillsboro Dam on the Tuckaseegee River.

American Whitewater has fought hard in the Tuckaseegee Watershed for a long time. Here are some of the fruits of their labor.

From www.americanwhitewater.org:

Back in 2001 American Whitewater was part of a diverse and open group of local, regional, and national groups that began meeting with Duke Energy to collaborate on a new plan for operating their dams in the Tuckasegee and Nantahala watersheds. The outcome of the three years of negotiations that followed was a comprehensive settlement agreement that Duke submitted to FERC as their application for new licenses for their dams. The agreement called for the removal of Dillsboro Dam and subsequent watershed enhancements like enhanced flow releases, new public river access areas, new parks and trails, land conservation, and funds for riparian conservation and water quality improvements. Unfortunately, the removal of Dillsboro Dam became a controversial issue and the resulting conflict has cost large sums of money and delayed this exciting river restoration and enhancement project for well over three years.

American Whitewater looks foward to celebrating the removal of Dillsboro Dam with the paddling community. Taking the dam out will provide a great river access area in Dillsboro and allow paddlers (and fish) to pass through the area for the first time in over a century. It is likely that there will be at least one small ledge at the dam site that may offer some whitewater challenge and/or surfing opportunities once removal is complete. Paddlers are strongly discouraged from paddling near (or through) the dam removal site while removal is occuring this spring. We will be working with Duke Energy to communicate the removal schedule and recreational protocol.

PS: Please excuse the headline pun(s).

This one’s scary, be sure to crank the volume…

Carnage. Mwaahahahahaaaaaaa….. Happy Holidays.

The sun finally came out in Pucon today. We all got quite excited and after packing our house up as we only have about a day or two left on the lease and I was heading to the river. I didn’t care what river and what crew I was with. I was going to go boating today. After getting a great Thai chicken pasta at Latitude 39 I headed over to Kayak Pucon to see if anyone was heading out. There were some new guys in town but they were more interested in finding a place to stay. Having been in there situation I understand their need to want a bed for the night. Rodrigo was about to head out to the Rio Turbio for some whitewater almost park and huck. The level was a little low but the lines were still good. I have never been to Cali before but the character of the river instantly reminded me of the videos and pictures i’ve seen. After about 20-30 minutes of hiking upstream we got to some really fun slides winding down hill with good boofs and all ranging from 5′-10′ in riverbed made up of mostly volcanic debris. After an hour or two of hucking down stream in this class IV paradise we were treated to a perfect twenty footer at the take-out. All this was head less then ten km outside of Pucon.

-adam

Paul Butler, a past contest contributor, sent us in this video of what his crew’s been doing this fall. We love contributions, so thanks a lot Paul.

John Grace speaks with AW’s Jeff Paine and Kevin Colburn about the situation on the upper Chattooga. Paddlers are currently banned from the upper reaches of the Chattooga river, find out why and what AW is doing about it.

Baker Davenport just sent us this little view from North Georgia. Check out a little gem we like to call “Frogtown Creek.” Thanks Baker.