Water Quality (1 bad 3 good)
Scenery (1 bad 3 good)
Obed River:
Gould's Bend-Hwy 127 to Adam's Bridge
"Urban Paddling at it's finest"
Length:
10 miles long
Paddle time 3 hrs avg. its an urban run , in an outdoor setting.
Gradient:
Min: 30
Max 80
Class III.5 (With a Class V)
Video:
If you would like to see some nice video footage of
the Obed-Emory streams and other East Tennessee streams please enjoy
Chris Arp's website CLICK HERE.
TOPO
MAP: Click Here
Watershed Map:
Click Here
Special thanks to Steve Zerefos for making the map.
Access Issues:
Get dressed before your trip both the put-in and take-out are both in
public view. Be quick here.
Level Needed:
Please see our flowpage.
Shuttle:
Remember to always use I-40 as your base guideline to get your
bearings.
Put-in:
Hwy U.S. 127
Take-out:
Genesis Road, at Adams Bridge, which is almost 7.34 miles from the
interstate.
Overview:
The Obed Gould's Bend is anomaly. Most associate the Obed system streams
with wilderness, epic canyons, hard shuttles and the hassle of closed roads due to hunting seasons. For the put-in
you put beside a Cracker Barrel, and gas station.
But don't that let make you think its trashy run. It's a beautiful
place. This is a Class III run overall ,with a Class 4.9
and a WTF Class IV.
The Creek:
You will put on U.S. Hwy 127, right at the Cracker Barrel, from there
you start paddling. For the first two miles. It's
benign Class II, and you wonder why did you want to paddle this? From
here it picks up speed, and in about a mile welcome to Gould's Bend.
Gould's Bend is a weird place. It just doesn't belong here. The creeks
hits some hard sandstone, and snakes it's way
down thru the rock, and here it becomes a true creek. It has a spooky
eiry feel to it.
The Esse's: Class 4.9
The Esse's are just that, you snake your way thru some easy slots. Why
Class V? One mishap here and boat and/or people recovery would be very
difficult here. The water has chewed it's way thru the bedrock, and it's
a series of s-turns that is
constricted, it would be hard to turn sideways here and not mess up.
From here you will paddle it seems for a couple of miles, and the valley
floor hits. You will let you guard down here.
This is the approach of Knucklebuster.
Knucklebuster aka WTF : Class IV
Knuckle it seems just appears outta nowhere and surprises most paddling
parties. We ran it blind, our first trip and
wish we had scouted it. After running it blind you will go "WTF" too
...wondering where it came from. It's a benign approach due to all the flatwater
;you be will paddling getting there. Then running
what you think is a Class II, that instantly becomes hard.
Gary Holder running Knucklebuster
