March 8 - Saluda River - Buzzards Roost to Hwy 121

We will try to keep this blog post short since we have covered most of this in our earlier trip, but did want to provide the details since this was a little bit shorter run and one we view as the preferred trip distance on this stretch of river.
Rather than paddle to the headwaters of Lake Murray, we wrapped up the trip at Hwy 121, which is about 7 miles upriver from the Kempson Bridge Landing we used last time out.
We were under some time constraints, so we chose the shorter route. What we didn't expect was a little help from Mother Nature (and the engineers at the dam) to speed things along. Water coming out of the dam was at around 4500 cfs when we put in.
As an aside, we did use the Newberry side of the river to put in this time. It is less of a descent, but it is easily 1/4 mile hike to get to the water from the parking area. If you have a heavy boat, you may have a tough time making this trek. It is much easier to set out in the water, but the hike to the water is Class V. Don't let this picture fool you.

When we set off, the water was nice and green. That was short-lived, however, thanks to a muddy creek coming in to the river about 500 yard after we got started. It was nice and muddy the rest of the way.

By the time we got to Hwy 39, the water was up to 5000 cfs, so we found ourselves sitting back and enjoying the ride; paddles across our laps for much of the trip just so it wouldn't be over so soon.

We managed to stretch it out to around 4 hours, which is easily do-able for anyone at this level. If you want to camp along the river, don't think about at this level. The several sandbars are under water. The takeout is just downstream of the Hwy 121 bridge on river left. There is a sign on the road showing the way.

And these guys were hoping we didn't make it...licking their chops as we paddled by.

Click here to see our route

Name: Saluda River - 3/8/2014
Activity type: Canoe
Description: Buzzard's Roost (Hwy 34) to Hwy 121
Total distance: 31.30 km (19.4 mi)
Total time: 4:10:28
Moving time: 3:53:30
Average speed: 7.50 km/h (4.7 mi/h)
Average moving speed: 8.04 km/h (5.0 mi/h)
Max speed: 12.31 km/h (7.7 mi/h)