Two creek boat races define our region: The Green River Narrows Race, in Saluda, N.C., and the Lord of the Fork race on the Russell Fork in Breaks Interstate Park on the Virginia/Kentucky border. Both races cover class V creeks, and both attract the best hair boaters from around the world, but their similarities stop there. Here’s a look at how each race, and river, breaks down.
The River: The Russell Fork “Gorge Run” is four miles of class IV-V+ whitewater dropping 180 feet per mile through the heart of Breaks Interstate Park and the 1,600-foot deep Russell Fork Gorge. It’s a natural flow river that locals run three to four times a week, nine months out of the year. In October, that natural flow is augmented by four weekends of dam releases on a tributary that pumps 800 to 1,100 cfs into the gorge. “At high water, it’s a pushy river, but still demands creek boating maneuvering,” says Steve Ruth, a local Elkhorn City boater who runs the Russell Fork 100 times a year. The race course covers a two-mile stretch that’s packed with four class V’s and just as many class IV+ drops. “The Russell Fork is a badass river,” Ruth says. “It’s not as hard as the Green, but it’s more dangerous because of all the undercut rocks.”
The Race: The first Russell Fork race was started by Olympic boater Chris Hipgrave and his paddling partner Brent Austin in 1995. It was an under the radar affair, with only seven boaters showing up to compete. “We were so worried about liability, we didn’t really tell anybody,” Hipgrave says. “Extreme racing hadn’t caught on yet. There was no Green Race at the time. But we wanted to step up the racing difficulty, so we challenged each other to see who could paddle the Russell Fork the fastest.”
The Lord of the Fork has grown from a handful of competitors to a solid 50 in the last few years, pulling in some of the best boaters from around the world. Still, it’s a low-key, grassroots event with no sponsors, no cash, no real registration except for a waiver boaters sign before taking the shuttle. The Russell Fork Rendezvous is a weekend-long celebration that’s grown out of the race that is billed as the “anti-Gauley Fest,” meaning the crowds are small and the boat demos and manufacturer branding is nonexistent. There is belly dancing though.
The Prize: First place takes home “The Cup,” a hand-carved wooden chalice crafted by one of the original racers that is passed down from one winner to the next.
The Sane Alternative: Can’t handle running the Russell Fork through the gorge? Consider paddling the class III Upper Russell Fork, from the Barlick Bridge to the Breaks Interstate Park, for long class II-III wave trains and plenty of surf potential.
The River: One of the most famous steep creeks in the country, the Green River Narrows is a 2.9-mile class V pool and drop creek set inside a densely forested, boulder-choked gorge near Saluda, N.C. The Green is best known for its massive drops, like Gorilla, where the entire river narrows into a four-foot-wide notch before dropping 20 feet in a very narrow flume. What separates the Green from most class V creeks is that it sees nearly 300 dam releases a year, giving it a characteristic that few creeks of its stature can claim: consistency. “There’s no real off-season,” says Leland Davis, founder of the Green River Narrows Race. “It’s one of the only places in the world that allows an intimate familiarity with such a masterpiece of steep whitewater offering a hard class V experience that hones your skills to a fine edge and never gets boring.”
The Race: Leland Davis and paddling partner Jason Hale “organized” the first Green River Narrows Race in 1996. “There had been talk of putting on a race on the Green,” Davis says. “One day, while on a shuttle ride at the Gauley, we just picked a date and started telling people.”
The first race drew more than 30 paddlers, but a big rain had the Green running at 200 percent on race day. “Gorilla was a giant notch of frothing despair,” Davis says. “That thinned the crowd to 16 of us.”
Last year’s race saw a record 136 paddlers, and five times as many spectators. The Narrows race has become the quintessential creek boating race in our country, with the top contenders dedicating months of their year to training for their single timed run in November.
The Prize: There’s no cash purse, but the Green winner takes home “The Glass,” a stained glass trophy made by local boater and artist Todd Graff. It’s a different design each year, but typically captures the beauty of running Gorilla.
The Sane Alternative: Not everyone can, or should, run the Narrows. But the class III+ Upper Green offers nearly four miles of intermediate whitewater in a primitive gorge setting. You can even take a guided inflatable trip with Green River Adventures.