Sweet's Falls

Sweet's Falls is the last of the Upper Gauley's big rapids and is considered the easiest by most. The rapid is named for John Sweet, who was the only person to run this drop on the 1968 exploratory run. The drop is easily recognized by huge rock walls on river right. You can see them as you round the last big bend in the river just prior to the easy class 3 before Sweet's. This easy class 3 will leave you on river right, lined up perfectly to enter Sweet's Falls. If this is your first time, you'll want to eddy out on the left below a pair of small holes in the large staging eddy. There will be a handful of boaters there, but rafts generally don't catch this eddy. From the eddy looking downstream, you will see: a small smooth wavetrain just right of center, a horizon line dead center, Dildo Rock sticking up just left of the horizon line, and more horizon left of Dildo Rock--this rock gets its name from a time when a raft was turned into a very large condom here.

The standard line down is to run the eddyline between the small wavetrain and the eddy you are in. If you are truly on the seam, you will be right on line to enter the flume, dropping 8-10 feet down into a chaos of water folding and twisting onto itself. You want to be right in the fold. If you are, you'll get spat out like a pumpkin seed. If you are too far right, you could drop right into a huge ledge hole that is pretty gnarly looking. If you're too far left, you'll rebound off of Dildo, bounce down the shallow drop, get worked for a second in the hole, and then flush. There will be a million rafters sitting on both shores, drinking beer and eating barbeque. It's classic West Virginia.

You might as well make the most of it and go for the monster splat on Postage Due Rock, the massive boulder just downstream of the drop. It's a great splat; you can slide all the way down it, even throwing some wheels. If you screw up the splat, you can attain on the river right bank, ferry across, and go for it again.

As you continue downstream, you'll pass the squirt boaters doing mystery moves on a great eddy line. The take-out is on river right here. If you are paddling on a weekend release during Gauley season, you'll be able to load your boat on a truck for the trip up to the parking area (make sure you bring your money for this sweet service that also serves as a fundraiser for West Virginia rivers). If you're paddling during any other time load your boat on your shoulder and prepare yourself for the long slog up and out of the gorge.

You can continue downstream on the Middle Gauley or even all the way to the Lower Gauley.