A profound statement by an equally profound person and incredible kayaker -

"...my talent can't be bottled up by some film or some form, it is
an un-reproducable sensation that in order to fully comprehend one
must watch in the live, actual, personal viewing state of living, or
watching."
- Cooper Lambla

Big falls at Secret Spot on the Nolichucky.

If you've been to Secret Spot on the Noli in TN you've probably noticed the Dam upstream and the absolutely sick waterfall/rapid on the river left bank. Since water has been so low this summer Caleb Coaplen and I headed up one day to see what it looks like at low flow. Here are all the photos. We thought it still looked completely crazy though runnable. I'm just not sure if it would be worth the risk of getting caught in that dam. I'm not running it and Caleb said he would not be willing to be present if someone did run it, meaning that he thought it was way too dangerous. The photos are taken at around 500 cfs on the gauge.

Mason rode with me too and said that he would not run this drop. Whew!


Caleb points at the first drop. This one is about 30ish feet.

Here's the landing off the first drop and this little drag strip runout.

After about 30 feet you would start dropping again, ideally driving left. You would not want to be up against the dam.

Here is the beginning of the second drop. This one has to be another 30-40 feet.

Here's a different view from the top where you can see the top of the second drop and the very bottom. The whole thing probably drops 80 feet including both drops.


If anyone ever runs this thing it would be pretty crazy. I think it's doable. I also think much harder looking drops have been run. My concern with this one would be safety. If you got stuck in the dam at the bottom it would be hard getting out or being rescued. I'm not encouraging anyone to run this thing. Just giving my interpretation.