Uwharrie River in North Carolina

Trip Overview

We (my Girlfriend & I) put our kayaks in at the low water bridge and kayaked to the highway 109 bridge. This stretch of the Uwharrie is just under 7 miles and makes a great day trip.

We used the Paddling Eastern North Carolina book as a reference and looked for flow rates as recommended of greater than 50 cfs on two other creeks nearby as the Uwharrie River dosen't have a working USGS gauge on line. Our flows today were Abbotts Creek 75 cfs and Little River 130 cfs. This made for a great kayaking experience.

The rapids would probably rate a class 1 but none-the-less they were still fun. We did encounter 1 strainer on the left around a small island(a few downed trees about 2 miles into our trip)which forced us to portage around to the right.

We used a great new outfitter called Two Brothers Kayak & Canoe Rental out of Eldorado for our shuttle. They actually met us at the put in and drove our car to the take out for us. They do provide kayak and canoe shuttles as well as rental of boats.

Accommodations:

No Rest rooms at either bridge.

Low water bridge has a nice parking area as well as two new concrete boat ramps. The 109 bridge is a steep bank (a little muddy, but manageable).

Directions:

From Charlotte: take Highway 49 north about 50 miles to the 109 underpass. Take 109 south towards Troy. Travel about 7 miles til you reach Eldorado and take a left on Coggins Mine Rd. (NC 1302). Go about a mile and a half and turn right onto a gravel road (Low Water Bridge Rd.-NC 1301). From there, it's just a short ride to the low water bridge and the boat ramps.

Alternate directions from Charlotte are NC 24/27 east to highway 109 North to Coggins Mine Rd. (NC 1302) to Low Water Bridge Rd. (NC 1301).

Contact:

Two Brothers Kayak & Canoe Rentals

phone: 910-576-4602

Resources:

Paddling Eastern North Carolina

Carolina Whitewater: a paddlers guide to the Western Carolinas