Weoka Swim & Lower Hatchet

We arrived in Coosa County, still raining lightly on Saturday morning around 9am. Looking at radar precip, it looked like Lower Hatchet, Swamp, and Weoka would be our best options. We opened the morning up with the easy 8 mile run from Kings Bridge to Lake Mitchell on Hatchet. I mtn biked the shuttle (about 9 miles) took the north side of the river route/CR 18, there is some dirt road here. River was around 700 cfs and rising fast. No problems, class I shoals, and some longer flatwater stretches. Scenic most of the way. Dogwoods, Mtn Laurel blooming. Some stripers were running up the creek too, from the lake, didnt fish. Deer, turkeys, ect. Light mist and 65 degrees, cozy. A glance at Swamp, showed it was running good. We had run this last year, so we opted for something different for run #2. Looked for a lunch spot in Rockford - no dice. We headed down to Weoka, knowing the bulk of the precip fell in its watershed. I would estimate 3" fell in the basin. Mike navigated, while I drove. We miscommunicated about the put-in bridge. We unknowingly unloaded our boat at CR 429/Buyck Road.. By the time I drove south I realized we were 4 miles up river from the Sewell Road/CR 432 put in. Oh well, I headed on down to the bridge at Lake Jordan, Weoka Mills. I left the truck here, and biked the extended shuttle without totally scouting the shuttle route. CR 433 above Titus/Grays Ferry Road was soft, muddy dirt - It was nasty. There was my second out-of-shape shuttle of 8 miles with no lunch. So we had a six mile paddle to the lake, with the time about 4pm, just enough daylight for the run. The river was pushing 3 chickens, muddy and strong. You have to look at the radar precip, not the Hatchet Gauge to get the idea. I would say there was easily a 800 cfs in the streambed at launch, with more dumping in from every tributary. The "upper" Weoka run wasnt bad. It moved fast, we had some I-II water here and there. Below the Sewell road bridge, the first mile was also I-II, and moving fast. Then we hit the bigger stuff at the end. The first good rapid was a straightforward II+. We both took on a little water, no problems. Then we got to the bigger boy. The site lists this at III-IV at higher water. I would give it that rating at the level we experienced. It has an initial drop that must be run left of center, followed by a left of center S-turn drop that had a big hole towards the center of Weoka. The washout boulder garden below was in the class III range and ran about 50 yards. We scouted, I decided to run it first, directly, with no throw rope set up.. Bad idea! I have run stuff this bad before, no big deal. No lunch, the last rapid of the day, 17 miles of shuttling on a mtn bike... Hit the main drop off line to close to the hole in the center and flipped. I hit a low brace and my paddle was in the hydraulic. I couldn't roll up the massive 15' MR explorer despite thigh straps and a pedesal. Screw it, I'm swimming .. I had my buddy Curtis' PFD on, and it was an adult small jacket, Not enough. So I off to swim the III washout for the whole 50 yards, swimming hard to avoid the holes and getting a mouthful of water everytime I needed a breath. By the time I eddied out down at the bottom, I was too spent to chase the canoe. I took about 15 seconds to compose myself on the river bank and Mike comes crashing down through the woods. "Are you alright ?" "Yeah, that Sucked ! " So... after a breather, or three, I talked it over with Mike. I would paddle the other boat through, cheating the drop to the far left, on the 3' and 4' double drop ledges, and avoid the bad stuff, navigate the washout, and paddle out tandem to go get the other boat. That went off without a hitch. We got to the old mill dam. I have seen pictures of it before, of people running through the slot in the dam. The river was pouring over the whole dam, and doing so too good for my taste, plus we had a canoe stuck in the washout below the dam. So, we carried around and ferried over to the canoe, One of the bow lines was wrapped in some debris, and she was a little hung up, but broke free with a little shove. A testament to not having bowlines, or having them secured. A few nicks on the IQ gunwale , but otherwise, in good shape. The unmanned canoe had run the dam upside down, without issue. A testament to full floatation. I lost a 54" or 56" bending branches wooden paddle, with rockguard... No major bruises, and just worn down to nuthin. Fun day of Central AL boating/biking and lots to talk about on the way home.