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First, the White Water Rafting:
It. Was. Awesome! Every year, the hiking group and friends of the hiking group go white water rafting. This was my first year to go with them though because I was already booked up on the calendar during last year's trip. (Sadness). But this year there were 12 of us in attendance. There are a couple of different white water rivers in the area, but we decided to do the Ocoee again because it is pretty much the most awesome within driving distance. (The 1996 Olympic whitewater events were held on the Ocoee River). Andrea set it all up for us, to which we all chanted in sing-song unison: "Thank you An-dre-a!"
I had to pick up some snazzy water shoes for the adventure because Tony threw out the grungy tennis shoes that I usually wear after I went to Midnight Hole. (Apparently, if you wear grungy tennis shoes in the water and they get all wet, and then you take them home and forget to put them in the washing machine for like a week, then they get all mildewy, and no amount of washing will get rid of that smell. Go figure.) Anyway, the good news is that Wal-mart is having a super clearance sale on all their water shoes, so I was able to pick up a pair for $2. The bad news is that they only have Men's and children's sizes left, so I had to get the some slightly too big men's water shoes. Let me tell you what a fashion statement that makes. I don't have dainty little feet to begin with, and if you add another 2 inches of empty water shoe on the end, you end up with very long black mesh flippers. So stylish. But this is white water rafting, so no one is going to be checking out my feet anyway, right?
We were supposed to arrive at the White water rafting place by 8:30am, and it was a bit of a drive, so we met at Turkey Creek at 6:45. AM! In the morning! Do you know that it is still dark at that time? It is. Normally I don't do pre-dawn unless I'm seeing it as a continuation from the night before, but I decided to make an exception because not even a pre-dawn meeting time could deter me from the awesomeness of white water rafting. Plus, no one would notice my freakish flipper shoes in the dark. An unexpected bonus.
Anyway, the caravan over to Ocoee Tn was uneventful, and only took about an hour and a half. Mapquest says two hours, but an hour and a half is more realistic. (Especially if your caravan ignores the speed limit...which I'm not confirming or denying here Trooper Joe, or if your monster flipper foot happens to get accidentally lodged under the top part of the gas pedal).
There are roughly 26 different rafting companies for the Ocoee, and after careful consideration, we went with Cascade Outdoors. I highly recommend them. We've gone with a couple of different outfitters before, and these guys are the best so far. We did the full river trip, which consists of about 5 and a half hours of rafting time. We were a little late getting started because some of the other groups that were going with us were late to arrive (shame on you!) but Cascade thoughtfully employs a kitten, so we passed the time waiting for the late people by dragging small sticks around for the kitten to chase. When the late people finally moseyed up, we hopped on the school bus with our paddles, life jackets, and helmets for a 15 minute ride to the top of the Ocoee.
After a little paddling instruction time, we jumped in our little raft and headed down the river, a la Race for your life Charlie Brown style. We started out on the Upper Ocoee with Class 2 rapids, which were awesome. Then we did the Olympic section, which has some really (you guessed it) awesome Class 3 and Class 4 rapids. There's a class 5 rapid right at the end of the Olympic section, which also happens to have a fantastic vantage point. Spectators come to watch people flip out of their rafts while going through this part. It's a riot! We didn't lose anybody out of our raft, but we did get off on the whole paddling together thing and ended up getting turned around and went through it backwards. (We got lots of applause from the crowd on that little feat, and our guide told us that in her five years running the Ocoee, she'd never gone through that rapid backwards before). The trick to staying in the raft is to wedge your feet under the sides of the raft so that you can't fly out...and if you happen to have an extra two inches of giant flipper shoe to secure you, then nothing short of the Apocalypse is getting you out. Bring on the rapids!
After that, we stopped for lunch to refuel and watch the other rafters. Some rafting companies provide a little box lunch for people...Cascade does an entire feast. I had spicy peel and eat shrimp, and fancy deli cold cuts, and gourmet sandwich fixin's and cookies and chips and every kind of salad available. Nothing like a good lunch while watching boatloads of unsuspecting rafters fly through the air when they hit that last rapid. Lunch AND a show! You just can't buy entertainment like that.
After lunch we hit the middle section of the Ocoee, where the rapids are more spaced out instead of on top of each other. There's also a couple of calm areas where you can get out and swim. (And by swim I mean float along at 10mph in the current...it's like a lazy river without the lazy). I did a little bit of kicking against the current to work off some of the lunch overindulgence, but it didn't get me very far, even with the power flippers.
All in all, we rafted roughly 10 miles on the water. A lot of paddling and bouncing around and getting soaked. I thought that my arms would be sore from all the paddling today, but instead it's my rear end that's feeling the burn (that's a sore muscle kind of burn, not a Preparation H kind). Apparently it takes a lot of thigh and glute work to keep yourself seated while bouncing over rapids. But man oh man what fun we had!
Andrea took pictures, but it'll be 2 weeks before she gets around to getting them developed. So instead, here's a lovely screen shot of the Cascades website. Notice I am not stealing a copyrighted (copywritten?) picture...I am just showing you a screen shot of the fabulous Cascades website, which just happens to be showing a picture of our raft. (I'm in the front of the boat, daintily looking cool calm and collected as we barrel through the rapid...the Queen Mum would be proud). If you go to the website, our pictures start at 34 and run through 39. If you flip through them quickly enough, it's like watching a little movie of me getting hammered by a giant wave. Sadly, the giant flippers were never captured on film. They're an urban legend, like Big Foot. Actually, they could have been Big Foot's water shoes for that matter.
If you're ever in the area and feel like doing some awesome rafting, head to the Ocoee. Then call up Cascade. (They haven't paid me for this endorsement. They don't even know about it. If they find out, I'm hoping that all the positive press will convince them not to sue me for the screenshot above).
The rest of the group went to dinner after our trip, but I had to hightail it back to Knoxville to prepare for Feasties with the Beasties. But that's tomorrow's post. (And no, the Beasties are not my water shoes).
1 comment:
wow! That looks like a future brochure photo to me! The rest of the groups are all grainy, but the ones of your raft look amazing.
I'm jealous of all the fun. My weekend was rainy and cold. :(
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