Nearly two years after Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc on western North Carolina’s waterways, new recreation projects are taking shape along the French Broad River.
The latest additions are on the French Broad Paddle Trail, a winding and wild 146-mile network of campsites and public river access points stretching from Rosman, North Carolina to Newport, Tennessee.
This summer, MountainTrue and its partners completely rebuilt the Lyons Mountain access near Rosman; reopened the former Lazy Otter Outfitters property near Horse Shoe for seasonal public access; and added a new paddle-in campsite near Etowah.
The new campsite — known as Beech Bluff — is reachable only by boat and sits in a grassy clearing along the riverbank. It includes a fire ring and picnic table only steps away from the water, under the shade of a large beech tree.
Jack Henderson, manager of the French Broad Paddle Trail on behalf of MountainTrue, said the site fills an important gap for paddlers taking overnight trips.
“It makes a longer section of about 20 miles now into, like, a 12- and eight-mile section, which is a lot easier for folks to do in a multi-day trip,” Henderson said.
The improvements come as recreation groups and river businesses work to bring visitors back on the French Broad River.
“Last year was quite low, just kind of given debris removal, concerns and all kinds of issues with the river,” Henderson said.
He said some potential visitors remain concerned about pollution and hazardous debris, following a difficult stretch of storm damage, closures and cleanup.
“A lot of people’s concern post-Helene has been: Is there pollution in the water? Is there dangerous trash? Is there metal?” he said.
MountainTrue has been directly involved in removing debris from the river. Henderson said there are now “orders of magnitude less” trash and dangerous material in the water than there was following Helene.
Still, water quality remains an outstanding concern.
Renee Fortner, director of programs at RiverLink, said the French Broad’s water quality has generally returned to pre-Helene levels – but that’s not to say those levels are the gold standard. A 19-mile stretch of the river has been classified as “impaired” since 2022 due to its high levels of bacteria, including fecal coliform, which is found in human and animal feces.
“It was impaired prior to Helene,” Fortner said. “And the same trend that we were seeing before the storm is still occurring, where E. coli levels, bacteria levels, spike after a rain event.”
During paddling season, from May through September, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality monitors bacteria levels weekly and shares results online.
Fortner recommends checking current readings before hitting the water. But she said, generally, there are plenty of places with safe water.
“Every day’s different. Water quality changes day-to-day based on rainfall and a lot of other factors.” she said. “But in the absence of a rain event, bacteria levels are typically well below the threshold. You know, it’s considered safe.”
Despite lingering concerns about the river, Henderson said interest in paddling appears much stronger than it was last year.
“It’s hard to say things are back to normal, because there’s no normal sense of what that would be, but there’s a lot of interest,” he said. “People are booking camps, and the river seems busy in general.”
The Paddle Trail improvements are part of a wider wave of investment in French Broad recreation. This fall, Woodfin expects to open Taylor’s Wave, an engineered whitewater feature for paddlers and surfers. And the City of Asheville is exploring a new paddler beach as part of its long-term effort to rebuild the city’s riverfront parks.
