Rocknrhondarapid on Rocky Creek

Liberty City, Deep East Texas.

These pics are from February 19nth, My third run of Rocknrhondarapid on Rocky Creek on the outskirts of Liberty City. So far I have run the rapid and the 1/4 mile to the first eddy where a river left takeout can be effected 10 times on 4 occasions. So far I am the only person to paddle this rapid/ creek. Of the 10 runs I have vertical pinned 4 times. On my 2nd occasion I pinned on my 3rd attempt and had to rope the boat off and come back for it the next morning. Unfortunately my footbrace had blown out and gone downstream never to be seen again. I have since installed another.

The 1st descent was on December 8th, 2001( i think). Rocky Creek drains most of Liberty City, a small community between Longview and Tyler in east Texas, about a mile north of interstate 20. It runs into a small(2 acre?) lake. 100 yards below the lake, after dropping over a few 2 ft ledges, the creek drops into a gorge. The 1st is a 10 ft vertical drop onto a sloping shelf which is a slide that drops another 10 ft in about 40 ft length, for a total drop of 20 ft in about 60 ft. After the initial drop there is a backward C channel which is 5-6 ft wide for 100 ft or so before the channel widens enough to turn a boat. From there on the walls are 15-20 ft high with class I-II rapids before reaching a point 3oo yards downstream where there is a microeddy where you can take out on river left and hike up and do it again.

My girlfriend, RocknRhonda Barrow( yes she is related to Bonnie and Clyde), showed me this waterfall that she used to go to when she was in school. I was totally amazed. I know of nothing like it in east texas. I was doing flow analysis on the creek and the watershed before I ever ran it. I determined that 1/2 " of runoff in an hour would make it runnable and I was correct. I dont work when it's raining so we watch the computer doppler, then the rain gage in her yard then the flow in the ditch then we drive 1/2 mile and hike 300 yards with boat ropes and camera and I run the sucker.

The brink must be run far right. If you are far enough away from the right bank to make a right stroke going over the brink you are too far left and may pin. We were there the other day and saw that the sunday night (4-07-02)5" rain broke a beaver dam upstream and put several logs in the drop which we will have to remove. It also tore a 300 lb rock off the brink and deposited it at the bottom, so the drop has been changed. Anyway here are pics of the baddest rapid in East Texas.

So there ya go. E- mail me if you happen to be near Liberty City, East Texas when heavy storms are imminent. I'll most likely be online watching the radar and the barditch.