Spalding Hurst and Josh Carpenter paddled the Ocoee this weekend, along with 20+ Viking Canoe Club members. Runs were made on the Upper and Middle sections on both days.

Tags: Ocoee | Viking Canoe Club

• Pictures

We made our annual club trip this year to the Hiawasse and the Ocoee. Everyone loved it. And why wouldn't we. Warm weather, refeshing mountain whitewater and a great representation of the club.

Most folks drove down on Friday to setup camp at River Rats. The Mathews group came down on Thursday night and ran the Ocoee on Friday. On Saturday we all went to the Hiawassee to get warmed up. Driving there Jay preceeded to make a sharp right into a field at the 1.3 mile mark of 314.

Jay is quite the literal direction taker. Maybe now he'll stop staying I am bad with directions. Joe got his first taste of the whitewater experiance running a sit on top down the river. Sara and Jennifer used the club duck and styled it. Johnny went old schoool in the Mohawk with Scooter. Amber ducked like a champ it and the rest of us kayaked, Jay, Toby, Josh, Michael and myself.

The run was pretty mellow as to be expected. Some nice ledges kept it interesting enough though. The heat tried to wear us down, but we pressed on to the Ocoee afterwards.

Michael guided the raft hitting every line with accuracy and precision... I mean every rock with accuracy and precision. Jay and Toby ran the 2 man duck and hit every hole with accuracy and precision and it sure looked fun. Josh and I kayaked and styled the shit out of it. I took my creek boat down the Ocoee for the first time. The Creek boat made the rapids much easier I thought.

You know what followed, sitting around the campfire talking about the action of the day, looking over the pictures from the trip, bragging about how hard we eaqch paddled then hitting the sleeping bag hard. Then on Sunday rolling out of town, thinking about the next trip.

Tags: Hiawassee | Ocoee

When: August 10-12
Where: Benton, TN
Rivers: Ocoee & Hiwassee
Forum: Link

The Bardstown Boaters are making their club outting this year to Tennessee, the Ocoee and Hiawassee rivers.

The trip will be on August 10th-12th.

We will will be doing some class II canoeing & kayaking on the Hiawassee river. This is an excellent river for family outtings, canoeing, rafting and beginning whitewater instruction. We'll also be taking the club whitewater raft down the class III+ Ocoee river. Michael Mathews will guide us down. Some of us will be kayaking the Ocoee as well.

Camping will probably be at the River Rats whitewater outfitters and campground.

If you want to get out one time this year, this is the trip to go on. It promises to be a very fun weekend. Let us know if you will be attending by checking in on the forum.

Tags: Hiawassee | Ocoee

Josh and I shoved off today for our "Week of Rivers". But since the south east is so dry it's going to look more like a "Week of Ocoee". We did run the Pigeon earlier and that was fun. Now we are in Sevierville with a busted water pump and an overheated Jeep. It's all good though because we stopped at Advanced Auto and they called in a mechanic for us. 4th of July and all he's going to hook us up. Price sounds pretty reasonable too. So far so good. Ocoee tomorrow...

Later in the evening...

It's late and the jeep is not fixed. We are now parked at a sit and sleep furniture and matress superstore overlooking the car dealership. Fireworkks are going off all around Pigeon Forge and the Sevierville area. We are waiting for morning so we can get this water pump fixed. Our mechanic at Autozone couldn't get the fan disassembled so now we are going with plan B. Hopefully we can get this fixed quickly in the morning and get down to the Ocoee to meet up with the others.

Josh is cooking dinner behind the car and I am getting ready to sleep in the passenger seat. Kayaking is always an adventure. Even off of the river.

Day 02 & 03

On Thursday after a very long wait on getting the jeep fixed, this after sleeping behind a furniture store, we finallly made it to the Ocoee. The water was about to be shut off so with just 30 minutes of release left we hurried and shoved off.

We met John and Chris at the put in and booked it down. The water holds for about an hour after they shut it off so we made it down with no problems.

We camped at Thunder Rock. Good times were by all.

Right now I am relaxing at Hell Hole after day 03. Josh and John are making their second lap and I am eating and surfing. More good times were had today.

Day 04

Today some more Vikings rolled in while some others headed off to the Cheoah. We stayed at the Ocoee for another run on the middle section.

I was a little off today with my rolling, having a close call at Broken Nose. I rolled in the entrance and barely caught the last eddy before the right side. Then just below that I flipped again on Slice and Dice. I did manage to roll up without hitting the rocks like I did on day 02, but it took too many roll attempts. It all boiled down to the fact that after 3 days of straight paddeling I was dog tired. I manned up for the rest of the run with no problems, but I played much less to save my energy.

4 days of paddling has been great. I'll probably take it easy tomorrow the last day.

Tags: Pigeon River | Ocoee

On Saturady Zack and I met up with Richard and Jeremy from the Vikngs to paddle the Ocoee. We paddled the Upper Olympic section first. The first miles of the upper is class II warmup stuff. The action begins with a really great 7 foot drop, Alien Boof. Next comes Mkey's then the Olympics. The Olympic section is the real deal. Big pushy water. Class IV stuff. Fast and furious.

You pick your way down the left side, whichs makes the run through here easier. After Humungous you move right and run through Edge of World. Heartpuding stuff. Roach Motel is next and that is no joke either. We ran everything without a problem and had a blast doig it.

We ran the Middle Section next. It was a walk in the park after doing the Upper. We were very tired after running all of this, it was about 5 1/2 hours of paddling constant class III.

On Friday and Saturday night we camped at Chillowee State Park. I'll always prefer camping at River Rats though.

On Sunday we ran the Middle section again. We jumped in Hell Hole a few times at the end after having the river mostly to ourselves. I'm really starting to enjoy the Ocoee. Coming back in July and August will be sweet.

Tags: Ocoee

Associated Press
DUCKTOWN, Tenn. - Commercial outfitters have secured a loan to pay the Tennessee Valley Authority $1.1 million in advance for 12 years of whitewater releases on the Ocoee River, officials said.

The loan arranged by the Southeast Tennessee Development District and eight banks, combined with a $500,000 federal-state grant, will ensure that rafters, kayakers and canoeists have plenty of current in the river that hosted the 1996 Summer Olympics' whitewater competition.

The total $1.6 million loan-grant package will help TVA offset a projected $3.1 million loss in power revenues from diverting water from its hydroelectric generators on Ocoee Dam No. 3.

Under a deal crafted last year between TVA and 22 rafting outfitters, the federal utility has agreed to provide 34 days of scheduled water releases on the upper Ocoee annually.

The outfitters charge a fee of $3.50 per ticket to pay for water costs. Last year's revenue was more than the TVA charge, so the extra will be put toward debt service on the loan and marketing the Ocoee experience, said outfitter Larry Mashburn.

Mashburn said 35,000 people rafted the upper Ocoee last year, up from 32,000 in 2005.

link to source

Tags: Ocoee

Normal release level.



Jay, Zack, Jim Fahling and I went down to the Ocoee for our maiden voyage this past Saturday. We left Lexington at about 7pm on Friday and it took a little over 4 hours to get to Chilhowee campground. The next day we broke camp and got ready for our one day pass at running the Ocoee. We scouted Grumpy's and Broken Nose, warmed up in the pool above the run, then decided to just go for it. David Ackerman led us down and it was a perfect run. Everyone did great and we had no problems at all. Jay had a couple of swims at some opportune moments. Now he swears he is going to get his roll down and stop procrastinating about it.

The Ocoee is where my love of rivers started. We used to come here back in high school and every summer after with the Mathews' raft. Seeing all the kayakers here made me want to become a kayaker because it just looked so damn fun. Well now after running it I can say that it is even more fun than it looks like. I loved it. Can't wait to do it again!

Pictures from our trip.

The rapids:

Grumpy's Ledge: Stared at this for too long. Make the ferry and it's all good.
Staging Eddy: Easy
Gonzo Shoals:Easy
Broken Nose: Ran the sneak, it was not hard to make. Should have ran it.
Moonshoot: Surf Wave
Double Suck: Almost ran the sneak, did not. Glad I didn't.
Double Trouble: Big waves, they take pictures here. Got some air.
Flipper: Surf spot? Don't really remember.
Doledrums: Shallow stuff
Surprise Ledge: The end of the Doldrums.
Tablesaw: Biggest rapid. Don't flip. Ran with no problems.
Diamond Splitter: Fun, ran the far right side.
Witches Hole
Accelerator: Fast water, just like the name suggests.
Cat's Pajamas
Hell Hole: Got hella air. So I here, all I saw was the sky.
Powerhouse: Good thing I made my roll from Hell Hole, this one comes quick. Run the right side.

Tags: Ocoee

We plan to run 2 rivers in 2 states in honor of Jay getting married. This will be the weekend before Easter.

Thursday April 6th - Sunday April 9th 2006

Chattooga River, Georgia
Section 2 class II 7 miles
Section 3 class III+(IV) 13 miles
Ocoee River, Tennessee
Middle Ocoee class III+

The Plan
Drive down on Thursday, camp and setup.
Paddle section II on Friday, camp.
Paddle Section III on Saturday, drive to Tennessee.
Paddle Ocoee on Sunday and head home.

Tags: Chattooga | Ocoee

Saturday, June 12th 2004

After not getting the raft down to Tennessee last year, this year we made sure to continue the tradition of rafting the Ocoee. It was the usual suspects this year with added newbies of Casey, Brandon and a couple of burg boys who had never gone whitewater rafting before. We made three trips on the river on Saturday, everyone left on Sunday. Ryan, Brandon and Casey punked out on us on Saturday and went home early. I stayed and kayaked the Hiwassee on Sunday. Casey and Chris Voit swam. River Rats was very good to us this year. After Brandon and Ryan kept everyone up all night they let us stay the next day, but they moved us under a pavilion out front. I am beginning to feel that I can run the Ocoee soon.

Sunday, June 13th 2004

The next day I went up to the Hiwassee and kayaked with Meagan and Darrin. The Hiwassee was cool easy run, which what I was looking for. Good little surf spots, side surfing and some ledge drops.

Tags: Ocoee | Hiawassee

Can't remember the details of this one yet.

Tags: Ocoee