Clear Water in the Johns River

I wanted to investigate part of the Upper Catawba River Trail. After consultation with Rick from Outdoor Supply Co, inspecting the trail map, and checking trips in "Paddling Asheville," I settled on the Johns River. We intended to put in at US 64/18 (between Morganton and Chesterfield NC) and see how far upstream we could go. If it turned out to be too short, we could keep going downstream past the put-in and head to the Catawba River proper.

We got to the access point (#15 on the wonderful river trail map) close to noon. Our only company were a couple of power boaters - one pulling out, the other putting in. Here's a view of the access point and the bridge.



Almost as soon as we cleared the shadow of the bridge, we realized there was something different here. The water was crystal clear! We could see the bottom even when the river seemed quite deep. I haven't been in much of any water yet that wasn't muddy. This really changed my perspective on these rivers. I barely noticed anything about the scenery - I spent the whole time looking down! Probably a good thing. The Johns here is in a fairly wide valley. With the water level a good 6 ft below the ground level, we didn't see much except the trees that bordered the river.

The river bottom demonstrated a fascinating variety. When sedentary, either shallow or deep, there were always ripples in contour and even in color: sand, brown, and orange sometimes with valleys containing leaves. There were tons of trees and branches to be seen on the bottom. When the current was strong, coarse-grained sand, pebbles, and stones. Interestingly enough, I think it was displaying a morphology described in Luna Leopold's "A View of the River" where the depth undulated fairly regularly - deep pools evident quite regularly along the length. There were a number of swinging ropes suspended from trees over the river - clearly favorite spots for kids to come play.

Additional variety was provided by the rocks along the way. Compared to other paddles so far, the rocks here aren't much to look at above the water. But HOLY FREAKIN' COW, under water was a completely different story! The river went WAY DEEP by the rocks. Duhh, the sand/dirt underneath erodes out much faster than the rock. With the really clear water, we could see the deep ledges created and the striations in the rocks themselves. So, even when there was barely any rock above the surface, there was plenty below. Stunning.

The water clarity also allowed us to see the shear quantity of trees, branches, snags, etc that were down there. More than you would guess from seeing at the surface. The snags were fascinating - most were natural but many were not. The spookiest thing was seeing the trees reaching up from the bottom, like drowned things, trying to drag us down to join them.

We didn't make it all the way up to the Corpening Bridge. If I'm spotting the big aluminum barn on Google Maps properly, I think we made it about three quarters of the way. About 3 miles as the crow flies before the current got too strong and rocks blocked us here:



As it was, we were 3 hours out with a couple munchie breaks. Heading upstream first was great because we could really see what was in the water. It only took us 1 hour & 20 mintues to get back. I think we would have missed a lot if we'd been paddling with the current the whole time. I wish I had better pictures. I couldn't take any of the really nifty stuff in the water.



We had a really nice time and a really positive experience in this area. It's only about an hour or so away from us. We will definitely be up this way again soon.

P.S. Should I have put a "science geek" warning at the beginning of the post? Oh, well, too late now.