Evidence of Navigability

"This is where you get out and scout the first of 4 drops, which mostly comprise one single large class 5. This spot is the prettiest on the river. This is the second drop in the first gorge. This is the third drop in the first gorge. I know it looks tight, but trust me, its even tighter. This one is sick. A class 3 technical jaunt piles right into a sieve on the right. its hard to avoid and you would probably die if you went in there. This is the fourth and final drop of the first gorge. This is the top of el horrendo See that flat rock on the right? If you go under there its over. Stay left Look at this one real carefully. Any mistake could be fatal. anywhere off line is bad. There are 3 undercuts and countless sieves in here. there is a siphon on river right on the bottom drop. This is the first drop of afterbirth, which is right below el horrendo. There is a hole and hallway visible in the picture. The top is tricky and then around the corner to the right, it immediately drops into a slot that would not be runnable if it was 2 inches tighter. It is very undercut. The second narrow slot of afterbirth is at the bottom of the picture, the first drop at mid pic, and the bottom of el horrendo is visible further upstream Tony is droping the first drop of afterbirth Drive right and plane the hole heading right. Probably won't kill you, but scary none the less. Its a deep undercut on the left, where the rebound off the right wall all goes. Speed will prevent you from going there as well Don't get me wrong, we had moments of fun between the boring parts

This is in the middle of fat man's. Yes, a kayak will fit, but not all the way under and out."

-Kirk Eddlemon (UNK DATE)

"Very nice ,strange run.we arrived late in the afternoon and put-in about half way down the run by hiking into the canyon just below the Indian Creek confluence on the west side of the canyon. There was a moderate amount of water at our put-in, est.200 cfs which held to below the first short boulder clogged gorge.below this gorge water fell out of creek bed into underground caverns by pouring down several siphons.This reduced flow to about 40 cfs. after a spell of wheelchairing, and boat dragging, water came back into the creek though several cliff bases bumping it up to a higher level than before maybe 350-400 cfs. pretty good class 3 section for a couple of miles with one section of good fluffy low angle play holes this ends up at river wide 5 to 6 ft. ledge into a big pool,water goes under ground again at this pool leaving steam very low again. there is another extremely boulder clogged section below this that was very cool with mulitiple low volume slots mazing through gaint boulders.we scaped on down to the 85 bridge .Big Laurel Creek comes in on the left just above the bridge depositing massive amouts of orange gunk in this pristine steam complely killing all moss and life in the Obey and staining all the rocks a rusty orange.Very nice area and intersting runs can't wait to go back and run the whole thing at a good water level.

WATER LEVELS

we ran it at 560 on the Jamestown Gauge this is too low, this gauge is several big tribs downstream and is likely twice to three times the water that is in this upper section.I am guessing that 800 to 1500 would be a good medium level. any more input on levels would good.

-William W. Thornton (Apr 7, 2002) 

You can find other evidence by exploring American Whitewater and their documentation of the Obey being used by kayakers - which has often been considered strong evidence of determining navigability in Courts of Tennessee.