Duck River — Shelbyville to Henry Horton: River Level Today — Can You Paddle It?

At 167 cfs the Duck River is inside the runnable range but only 67 cfs above the 100 cfs floor, so it is sitting at the shallow end of what this reach runs at. A dry few days would take it under.

Over the last 24 hours it has barely moved, 163 cfs to 167 cfs. Daily means over the past 7 days have run between 155 cfs and 172 cfs, ending roughly where it started.

Duck River at Shelbyville to Henry Horton is a Class I run in Tennessee — easygoing moving water with light riffles and nothing technical. Most paddlers put in at Shelbyville river access and take out at Henry Horton State Park (Chapel Hill).

Whether it's worth the drive comes down to flow. This section generally paddles well at 100–3,000 cfs (a conservative estimate — see our methodology). Much below that and the Duck River gets low and bony, so you end up scraping gravel and walking the shallows; well above the top of the range it turns fast, cold and pushy, which is a more serious day than most casual boaters want. We read USGS gauge 03598000 about every 30 minutes and compare the live number to that window, so the verdict at the top of this page reflects conditions right now rather than a monthly average.

Flows here are usually most dependable April–October. Spring can run high after rain or snowmelt, and late summer often drops too low to float well — but the gauge always beats the calendar, so check today's reading before you go.