Whitewater Kayaking and River Tubing
Most of the Doe River section running between the Valley Forge put-in (LAT 36.310833 LONG -82.193055) and the take-out just before the Elizabethton confluence is classified on the International Scale of River Difficulty as Class/Grade I; however there are several brief segments of the Valley Forge-Charity Hill-East Side run that should be approached as Class/Grade II. It takes approximately three hours to float down the Doe River on inner tubes from the Valley Forge put-in to the take-out near the confluence of the Doe River into the Watauga River. Putting in at Hampton High School and taking out at Valley Forge Elementary involves running class 2/3 rapids and is more difficult that the section below Valley Forge school.
All river tubes and kayaks must portage around the weir dam that is located immediately downstream of the covered bridge in downtown Elizabethton.
There is a Class III/IV section of whitewater referred to as the Doe Gorge that begins at the bridge over the river on Bear Cage Rd. and ends at the take-out at Hampton High School. This sections drops between 100 and 160 feet per mile. The gorge is for advanced paddlers only. Paddling through Roan Mtn State Park has been done many times but is not as well documented as the popular gorge section downstream.
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“the folk-lore
Of each of the senses; call it, again and again,
The river that flows nowhere, like a sea.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)