Uwharrie River in North Carolina

Trip Overview

We used a two car shuttle as we put in at the highway 109 bridge and took out at the Swift Island Boat Ramp on Lake Tillery on highway 24/27. The trip was around 14 miles.

As the Uwharrie River has no active gauge we used the gauges of Abbotts Creek and Little River near Star for an estimate on the flow of the Uwharrie. Abbotts Creek was 3.75' at 75 cfs and Little River was at 1.57' at 47 cfs. I would recommend levels and flows of at least what we recorded for this trip. We ran the river with no problems using a Pungo 140 and a Pungo 120 kayak from Wilderness Systems.

Had a great time running the small rapids and just riding the current. We stopped for a picnic lunch and wine and another short break on the way to the take out. Trip was just a little under 8 hours. One could shorten the trip by using the Morrow Mountain boatlanding as the takeout instead of the Swift Island boat ramp. This would shorten the trip by almost 7 miles.

Accommodations:

nothing; just trees and water

Directions:

From Hwy 49 go south on hwy 109 to bridge (put in) from hwy 109 bridge (put in) travel south about 1 mile turn right on river road travel about 10 miles to intersection of hwy 24/27. Turn right (west) go about 3/4 mile Swift Island Boat ramp on right.

Resources:

Paddling Eastern North Carolina book - a very good book on rivers and paddling waters in central and coastal areas.