Running the River Regret

 

It’s an easy put-in,

but Bull Sluice to Shoulder Bone

is a run of holes that might claim you.

 

If the Sluice doesn’t kill you, it’ll shoot you

toward the worst of it; Section IV,

heaven and hell in a single pour.

 

A swift thread through Screaming Left Turn

and the Rock Jumble dumps you

into Sutton’s Hole, but

 

don’t be lulled by the sudden still,

for you’re quickly on to Woodall Shoals.

If luck’s on your high side, you’ll find

 

the sneak route to the right, around

Woodall Hole, a Class VI keeper,

the deadliest lick on the river.

 

If you’re still with us, don’t get comfortable, friend,

‘cause there’s plenty of hell yet to pay.

Shoals to Raven Chute, the river twists on

 

to Camp Creek high water takeout, where it gives a little,

offers you one last chance for exodus

before any one of the Five Falls takes you.

 

Entrance to First Fall is a diagonal bony.

A hundred fast yards to Corkscrew,

a boil of surging cross currents,

 

then Crack-in-the Rock, a tight sieve

that only passes water.

A lightening tongue flushes you

 

through to Jawbone and on to the

Sock’em Dog pour over, a ravenous,

seven-foot vertical drop into Dead Man’s Pool,

 

and one more sinker to go.

After Five Falls, Shoulder Bone

doesn’t look like much, but don’t you let up

 

till you flatten out and begin to drift

toward the lake. Once you’ve made

Shoulder Bone, nothing but riffles

 

here on in, and you can rest

assured, you’ve steered

your way clear of the keeper.