Ocoee - PFD

Well let me tell ya. It was a weekend I'll never forget. It started out with a beautiful day on Fri. I awoke early, excited about what was ahead. After finally gathering the last of my gear John and I were on the road around 1pm (only an hour later than we had planned. Sorry John, that's all on me.) The drive went pretty quickly, even with a stop off at Endless River Adventures where John picked up a sweeeet new Lendal 4-piece bent-shaft paddle, and NOC where I purchased a new Shred Ready Super Scrappy helmet. We arrived at the camp at dusk with just enough time to get our stuff set up before dark. Upon our arrival we were greeted by Sloshua, an already drunk Clinton and Curtis (didn't catch the last name). As we started to unload the firewood, that was so graciously donated by my sweetheart Angie Mattson (Thanks Babe), someone approached me with open hands and said,"Put some wood in here!" I decided to let that one slide. "Throw some wood on that fire!" quickly became the mantra for the evening , as Drunk Clinton (DC) apparently wasn't warmed enough by all the brown liquor he had consumed earlier in the evening. Eventually Mark Mckelvy showed then Matt Scruggs around midnight. Matt had said that it was snowing like a mofo in the Nantahala Gorge and I began to wonder what I had gotten myself into. Didn't matter. I was here and I was going to enjoy myself regardless of how cold it was. I ended up staying up until about 4am, too anxious and nervous about the following days activities to go to sleep. Big Day tomorrow!

Day 1 - Woke up and we all went to breakfast at some little hole in the wall restaurant in some little hole in the wall town. The biscuits and gravy were off the hook. After making it back to camp, we were joined by my new hero, Mr. Andy Travis. Just a little while later the boats and gear were loaded and we were off the the river. I have to note here that on Fri. as we were driving in, we got a good look at the river without any water in it. I remember thinking to myself that it didn't look all that intimidating (except for the river bottom itself, which was very jagged). The gradient was pretty consistant and I didn't see any major drops. This goes to show how little I know. It's amazing how benign the rocks that form rapids can look and how drastically different a river can be once it has water in it. I decided to walk Grumpy's the first day. Mainly because it sits directly below the put-in, and the ferry over to the sneak on river left seemed like a difficult venture. After watching the rest of the group make the ferry and run the rapid I put on and we were on our way. As we arrived at Staging Eddy I see Angela and Robbie Siegel and Jenni there waiting. Here I decide to get out of my boat and take some pics. There was a fun little wave in the center that everyone was playing on. I can't remember exactly what order the rapids came in so I'll list them as I remember them. I believe Broken Nose was next. Andy and I ran just left of the big rock and with a little left to right move and eddied out at the bottom. After working downstream a bit farther I turn to look back up and see Josh bracing like crazy in the hole on river right. I'll let him tell ya how that worked out. Next was Moonshoot which was run to the right of the split rock. Here comes Double Suck. There a fun little boof on RR, which I ran both days. I missed the boof on the first day but nailed it on the next. I was smiling. After the boof there is a great little eddy on RR in which to chill and watch the carnage at the bottom of Double Suck. Not much was provided though. Here comes on of my favorites on the whole river. Double Trouble! You start on RL in the large eddy and ferry towards center. Then point it downstream and let 'er rip. Three very large waves in quick succession come and go so fast that you don't realize how big they are until you eddy out just below them and look back at where you just came from. BIG GRIN! Next up was Flipper, which has that name for a reason. There is an angled wave that will turn you over if you don't hit it square. I think you see where this is going. No problems, just smiles. Now you're in the Doldrums, a long stretch of flat, calm water that ends with a Surprise if you're not careful. The surprise is a three foot drop that sneaks up on you. Smooth sailing. Up next is Tablesaw. Here I recieved some of the best advice I got all day. As you enter on RL you will encounter a series of waves. It is important to keep some left boat angle to offset the series of diagonal waves. I was also told that there is a pothole at the bottom of the rapid that I needed to be aware of. It was explained to me that while it MAY be possible to swim through the pothole, it IS NOT possible to do it with a PFD on. STAY AWAY FROM THE POTHOLE!!! Well sure enough I flip and while I'm upside down all I can think of is that big hole. There is NO FRIGGIN WAY I'm swimming here. I guess I should have concentrated on my roll more instead because it took FIVE roll attempts to finally come up. Whew! Now where is that pothole? It turns out that I flipped right at it and it was never a concern. Still grinnin!!! At Diamond Splitter I have a couple options. The first is to run left of the big rock and try to catch the eddy just behind the "Diamond". Well I blow that move and have to keep on truckin'. I peel out to the right and what do ya know? Witch's Hole. I busted right through and caught an eddy on RL. Just as I turn to look back upstream I see Angela caught in the hole. She's bracing and bracing and slides her way out just like she knew what she was doing. Great job A. A little further down Andy turns to me and asks, "Do ya wanna skin the cat?" At first I thought this was some backwards ass Tennessee river ritual that ended with me being initiated into the local taxidermy union. But what the hell, WHY NOT?!?!?! I figured since Andy had gotten me down this far unscathed, I might as well trust him. I was only mildly nervous about the SEG (shit-eating grin) on his face. This was so much fun. We started left of center and with an upstream ferry, worked over to the right to turn downstream and make a quick s-turn move to finish on RR. Hell hole is next. "Meat or sneak?" I wanted to finish strong so of course I said "Meat!" and here we go. This one was also Big fun. Mostly because of the BIG waves that lead in to the hole itself. I made it through and caught the first eddy I saw on RR. I didn't do any playing in Hell Hole, because, one, I was in a Mamba and two, there was a line of about 15-20 people waiting to get in. So I took out here and broke out the camera. Snapped lots of pics while drying on the rocks. There were some great boaters playing there. Never got around to getting back in the boat and running Powerhouse, so I couldn't tell ya what that one was like. That was the end of probably (for James, "prolley")the best day of paddling in my life. The Ocoee is unlike any river I have ever been on. It is continuous and fast and a lot of fun. After leaving the river, we headed back to camp and Angela whipped up a delicious batch of sketti. After that it was drunk fest for all (except me). I want to thank everyone that was with us, especially Andy, for a great day on the river. Our group on Day 1 was: Andy Travis, Josh Parker, Clinton Koontz, Mark McKelvy, Robbie Siegel, Angela Siegel, Matt Scruggs, John Bethune and myself.

Report from Day 2 coming soon....

Peace Out

Brentley

(all photos courtesy of Jenni Miehle)