Hills Falls (Hair of the Dog)

It is perhaps unfortunate that one of the bigger, scarier drops is the first you'll encounter. No real warmup other than flatwater. There are lines here . . . at the right flows . . . but there are plenty of ways for it to go bad, too. Many of the early runs of this didn't go quite 'as planned', so there's no shame in deciding to portage, though increasing numbers of paddlers now run this.

Shortly downstream you will encounter a potentially sticky, potentially playable ledge, Jaws II (the sequel is seldom as good as the original). (If you've done the Nolichucky, you'll know what I'm referring to.) Just downstream is another sloping ledge drop, which can generally be run pretty much anywhere, though it is likely to be scrapey down the center.