Water
Quality (1 bad 3 good)
Scenery (1 bad 3 good) 
Class III.8
Length 4 Miles
Intel:
Avg. Gradient 95 fpm
Max Gradient 130 fpm
Internet gage:
Please see our flowpage
Paddler's gage: Tellico Gage
From Dooley Trobras
Based off the Tellico Gage
5 ft ELF
7 ft Med-Low
9 ft High
11 ft leave it alone.
From Karl Whipp:
Tellico needs to be 6-10’ on Tellico for
Wildcat), and the Tellico really needs to be ON THE RISE. If you try to
catch it once the Tellico gauge is falling, you’re likely going to miss out.
Put-in:
Let's keep it simple:
Head towards Tellico Plains drive beside the Tellico to
Old Furnace Road and turn left. This is right across to
Tellico Beach Drive-In restaurant and they have good
hamburgers by the way. Once you turn left go up the
road.
At 3.0 +/- (according to my VW van) miles, there is a
sharp right turn away from the creek followed by a
hiking trail on the left, labeled 164. Take this trail
is easy and mostly downhill to the creek and is less
than a mile. Its for the lazy hiker in you.
Takeout:
The Tellico below the confluence with Wildcat Creek
Hazards:
Wood...with the Southern Pine beetle killing the pines,
and the Wooly Aglegid
killing the Hemlocks it could become epic in the micro
gorge.
Overall:
Wildcat Creek was first documented in the Video
Paddlesnake! by Milt Aitken
Its a fun run, not a hard one...a creek that an
inspiring Tellico boater can handle.
It's a small diminutive creek by anyone's standards.
It's as pretty as Bald River.
The beginning like Turkey Creek it has trees, most can
be limboed. Once you paddle abouta mile the action
starts with some on the upper scale of Class III.8 None
are epic.
One notable rapid in the middle of the run is a slide
with a great boof, it looks harder
than it is. Past this its straight forward stuff. with
some slamon type course work in the
boulder gardens.
The best is saved for the last where the water
constricts and you run a 8-9 ft .ledge,
with a delayed boof, running the river left side.
From Dooley Trobras:
I finally got to run Wildcat Creek yesterday. It rocks. I am amazed
that this isn't a more sought after run. You feel like you are in a
real wilderness area even though you are only about 5 miles from the
Tellico. To get to the put-in you turn on Furnace Road across from
the Tellico Beach Burger Drive-In and go to the suggested put-in on
the WRWW site. It is a horrible muddy hike and just 1/4 mile back on
the same road there is a pull-off that we used with a trail that
took us down to the creek. It is a great trail and about 1 mile hike
to the creek but it's downhill all the way.
Once you are on the creek it is beautiful. It feels like one of the
most secluded runs in the area. The whitewater reminded me of Island
Creek but the run is twice as long and just a little tougher. It is
really a class V quality experience due to the wilderness and beauty
of the run combined with the hike-in but the whitewater is easy
class IV. You just have to be on the lookout for wood. We had 4 wood
portages.
The real highlight of the run is the micro gorge 1/3 mile below the
put-in. It is one of the coolest rapids in Tennessee. It feels like
something out of CO or British Columbia. The creek gets 100% walled
in. There is a 4ft entrance drop and then the creek winds through a
walled in micro gorge and the exit is only 3 ft wide! The entire
creek goes through the 3ft wide exit. A kayaker in our group got a 2
point pin in the exit of the gorge and created a 4 boat pile-up
while i was in the one micro eddy in the micro-gorge looking on! It
was great. Eventually the guy that was pinned flipped over and all 4
of them flushed through the exit. Below the gorge the action keeps
up for a mile or more then the creek mellows to class II but it
picks back up to III-IV right before the confluence with the Tellico
culminating in one bigger 8 ft drop (the toughest rapid on the
creek). I highly recommend anyone check this run out on a high water
day. Wildcat Creek is probably the best run in the entire Tellico
watershed (Turkey Creek might give it a run for it's money if it
weren't for all the wood...)
The only drawback is that it rarely runs. You really need a ton of
water. The Tellico peaked yesterday at 9.0 ft and was probably 7ft
and dropping when we put on Wildcat Creek. I would call the level
low-medium. Perfect for a first time run when you are on the lookout
for wood. I re-watched the Paddlesnake! video last night and it
looked like we had about 3" or 4" more water than they had. I would
call the level in the Paddlesnake! video minimum. 5ft and dropping on
the Tellico would be ELF. You really need a lot of water for this
run. 7ft was great. I know people that have hiked off due to high
water and ended up spending the night on the creek when the Tellico
was 11 ft so the range is small. You really want 6-10 ft on the
Tellico.
