Whitewater Rafting on the Ocoee River: Tennessee

Click on any photo to get the full-size version or click HERE to get back to the main page

There's not much to say on the individual pictures so here's the overall story. We visited Chris & Denise in Ocoee, TN,

and Kim & Jerry joined us for a "gentle float" down the Ocoee River there. This is the river where "Deliverance" was filmed.
Rapids are rated from 1 to 6. This section of the Ocoee has about one-third of the rapids at level 4.
We got to the rental place and got the safety discussion about wedging
our feet into the rubber raft we'd be in - to keep us connected to the boat if we fell out - and strict instructions to grab the rope around the boat if we
fell out and to NOT try to stand up or swim if we fell out - since we'd likely just get our feet stuck under rocks,
then get our heads pushed under by the current and we would drown. Hmmm... not sure I wanna do this.

So. We get out into the river with our 18-yr-old guide and we're doing OK. Getting pretty wet, but doing OK.
We get to our 2nd or 3rd Level 4 and Denise and I apparently roll over the side of the boat in a nice "synchronized swim" movement.
I say apparently because I was busy having my head under water and I didn't see that Denise went "with" me.
But my foot was FIRMLY wedged under Denise's seat, so it remained in the boat even though that was *all* of me that remained in the boat.
Kathy grabbed my other foot, the guide grabbed my arm and heaved me back in, and on we went.
I think we all got a bit cocky at that point that we'd seen the worst and it wasn't so bad. Wet, but not bad.

So on we went - thru the section of Class 4 that you see below. Fun. Really Wet. Paddling.
Notice that we're all sitting on the side of the boat, leaning over to paddle.

Eventually we got to another section called "Table Saw". We were all paddling in order to give some forward momentum
so that our guide (also named Chris) could steer. We kind of slid sideways into a drop, and Denise went over the side (again)
and Chris grabbed for her and went over with her.
To cut a long story short, Chris-our-guide was in the front of the boat in about a second -
balancing while standing in a boat going thru level 4 rapids.
He grabbed Denise and just *put* her back in the boat, but Chris got caught *under* the boat and bounced along between
rocks and the boat. He was under water for perhaps 15 seconds, but he got beat up by the rocks.
Guide Chris then managed to haul Chris back into the boat, but we never recovered his paddle: it was just gone.
Annnd Chris looked kind of beat up - incoherent for awhile, but saying that he was OK.
We made it the rest of the way down the river (about 3 hours in all), pulled out, went home, and had a nice BBQ dinner.

Kim & Jerry went home, and then Chris collapsed. Blood pressure nearly gone,
so we got him to the hospital where they determined that Chris had gotten dehydrated
partially by not drinking enough - and partially by the football-sized bruise on his back.
They also determined that he had broken off *4* of the little nubs on his backbones.
2 Nites in the hospital and some good pain killers and he's back home, but will be
out of work for a week or so - and sore for awhile.

We survived, and I'm glad I did it, but I won't be doing it again.

IMG_5059.JPG	IMG_5060.JPG	IMG_5061.JPG	IMG_5062.JPG	IMG_5063.JPG
IMG_5064.JPG	IMG_5065.JPG	IMG_5066.JPG	IMG_5067.JPG	IMG_5068.JPG