Davidson Creek, Georgia. 8.26.2008

Joins Big Panther Creek just below the BPC take-out. Has been run before but attempts are likely rare as Davidson is as obscure as it gets.  One attempt by our group resulted in a quick retreat due to hundreds of vines that hung across the river at chest level and a lack of fortitude to deal with such vegetative hindrances. A second attempt was endured during a tropical disturbance. We originally intended to run Big Panther Creek but during the shuttle the sky literally fell, raining inches within a course of 30 minutes. By the time we returned to put on at BPC, the creek was at a high side of terrifying. Plan B was to run Davidson as the take-outs for for runs were within a hundred yards of each other.

The put-in for Davidson is below the dam of a small lake, which rose two feet while we stood there. Shrugging that off, we put on anyway. initially the level was way too much for us but the water dropped quickly to a raging but manageable level. The was one nasty pin, see the pics below and we had to bypass the lower gorge due to the late hour. The next attempt will be with machetes, an earlier put-on and a reasonable water level. Thanks and hats off to Hunter Creekmore and Doug Benton for taking a leap of faith and for enduring a very trying river experience.

The torrential rain on the shuttle back up to the put-in.	One of the early slides, after the river had come down a few feet.		Doug pointing out his pinned boat. under a sub-surface tree.	Setting up a z-drag to pull the boat out.
A huge slide that we did not run due to a tree at the bottom.	Midway there is a lake with a runnable 12 ft dam.	The start of the 2nd gorge.	More 2nd gorge action.	2nd gorge.
We portaged around the 2nd gorge to find ~ a mile of III-IV boogie.

 

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