Class: IV/V
Quality: 4
Location: Saluda, North Carolina
Trip Time: 1-3 hours
Level: Dam release, look online to find release times. It runs 300 days a year.
Put-in: 35.290699, -82.359221
Take-out: 35.264075, -82.324645
The Green is the classic southeastern run and the home of the annual Green River Race, arguably the biggest and most important race in whitewater kayaking. The Put-in is at a private parking lot so you’ll need to purchase a key for the gate, they’re 60$ and you can get them from a business near the take-out. From the gated parking lot its a mile hike in to the river. You also have the option of putting in on the upper and paddling in which can be faster but also manky unless the waters high.
Once you put on the river there’s a mile of easy class III warm up rapids. The river narrows after a while and you’re at the top of Bride of Frankenstein, the first rapid of the narrows. This rapid is run down the center and takes you to the top of Frankenstein. Frankenstein is the start of the race course and the steepest mile on the river. Weave your way down the middle of Frankenstein, if you don’t have someone to follow this one is worth a scout on river left so you don’t wind up in a sieve.
Below Frankenstein there’s a number of easier boulder gardens. Pick your way through these rapids until you get to Boof of Consequence. There’s several different lines but also a lot of pin potential here so this ones worth a look if you don’t have a guide. Just downstream of this rapid is the first of the “big three,” Go Left and Die. The standard line for Go Left is to start on the right at the top and run the next slot middle then try to stay straight to go through the left slot at the bottom. This rapid was originally named Go Left and Die because of a log in the left channel halfway down the rapid but in recent years the log has shifted and sunk so now its possible to run the rapid left from the beginning. Your easiest option is to go right the whole time and sneak the main move of the rapid.
A short section of boogie brings you to Zwick’s. This rapid starts with a 7 foot boof landing in a moving pool. You have to punch a hole before the river fans out over a slide. You want to hit the right side of the hole but not too far right or you’ll piton the wall. If you make it right slide down the slide or boof the left side. Immediately downstream of Zwick’s is Cheif’s. Run this rapid moving left to right to avoid a sieve on the left at the bottom. You’re now directly above Gorilla so if you want to scout or portage eddy out left. To portage you’ll want to hike down the rocks and seal launch immediately below the drop to paddle the slides or continue hiking down to the bottom of the slides to put in at river level.
Gorilla starts with a 7′ tall ledge. There’s a few different choices of lines including the far left called “The Flying Squirrel,” a boof down the center and the far right line, pencil sharpener. The river pools below flying squirrel for only a moment before it drops into The Notch, a pinch in the river thats only 7′ wide. After you go through The Notch you’ll be right at the lip of Gorilla this is an 18′ drop landing in a shallow fast chute. No matter what happens you don’t want to go off this one upside down! Get your bearings at the bottom because there’s two more slides with big holes in them just downstream. Below the first two slides is a pool then a third slide called “Power Slide.” This one is run down the middle. Downstream is the last big slide called “Rapid Transit.” This one would be hard to scout. You want to run this one about one boat length off the right wall.
The race ends in the big pool below “Rapid Transit.” Below this is “Nutcracker,” a big jumble of rocks with some lines that go and a lot that don’t. None of the lines through “Nutcracker” are very good so I usually opt for the portage. You can portage on river right past “Groove Tube” and “Sunshine” or portage on the left if you want to run “Groove Tube.” The classic line at “Groove Tube” is to boof the tube on the left. Alternatively you can also bump down the center of the drop. Just downstream of this is “Sunshine,” the last of the big three and the end of the steep part of the run. “Sunshine” can be run far left or far right, but you don’t want to fall off the center of this one, several people have broken their backs or legs. It’s also pretty easy to portage on river right.
The last mile of The Green is made up of a number of fun class IV rapids. Pick your way down this section being careful of sieves. There are a number of fun named rapids on this section including “Cornel Dicks,” “The All American Boof” and “Little Sunshine.” The run ends with “Toilet Bowl” and “Hammer Factor” a fun pair of rapids to end the lap! Scrape down the last 100 yards of mank below “Hammer Factor” to take out at the Fish Top parking lot.
The Kayak State 