Thanks
Thanks to all of you for flexing your experience regarding the thread, and giving fair warning of the dangers that exist. As an Olympic course I imagine it would be any man’s greatest challenge. With my limited experience, I can’t imagine that’d I get close to having the balls to get in the water on the most difficult sections.
There is nothing smart about doing something stupid. If I’m not in the best shape for the job mentally or physically I won’t risk my ass getting flushed down the tube… mostly for my sake, but if it does the community a favor, then it’s a win/win.
I’ll get my roll down here in Florida, and do as much research as I can handle. Maybe that will help make up for a few days at the beginning. It’s not about going big, but it is about the rapids.
Not just about the rapids
Its also about the consequences of a swim. The individual rapids on the upper Ocoee are certainly not man’s greatest challenge by any stretch, and as g2d points out, there is a cheat route to the worst one. But the current is big and pushy and the whole conglomerate can be pretty intimidating unless you have the ability to control your boat in heavy current. Even utilizing the cheat routes requires you to know exactly where you are, where you need to get to, and being able to get there.
Here is a video that might interest you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FE1mQ6LLsyU
You will find quite a few other videos on youtube of the upper Ocoee that may give you a feel for it. Some of those people swimming out of those rafts might have had a great time. Others might have been terrified. Remember that if you are a private boater and you swim there, you could lose your gear, and you could wind up swimming through several rapids before you get out of the current.
If you are relatively new to whitewater I would suggest starting out on drop/pool rivers. Swimming in a Class III rapid is not nearly as big a deal when the rapid is relatively short and there is a nice, big recovery pool at the bottom of it.
Every rafting customer already pays
a user fee to run the Ocoee. I haven’t run it recently, but if paddlers aren’t paying to park, they should. The only thing wrong with the Nantahala fee system is that the rangers go over the top about enforcement.
We still visit the Olympic course all the time, we stay in a cabin south of McCaysville, and I’m in close touch with paddlers using all the streams in the area. I do not agree about the picture posed of locals and visitors generally being at odds. By now, the paddling community is an integral part of Polk County. Friction, now and then. Bitter, seething resentment and prejudice, no way.
You don’t have to pay to park
To run the middle Ocoee. You do have to pay to park at the whitewater center. It is either $2 or $3 per vehicle.
The fee for each raft customer used to be $3/head and I assume it still is, but I thought most or all of that went to TVA.
Polk County has long realized that whitewater recreation (including the visitor center at the Olympic course and all the folks who come there to scramble around on the rocks when the course is dry, which it is most of the time) is about the best thing they have going. The local police, the Forest Service, and all local businesses are very supportive of whitewater rafters and paddlers. There might be a few local yahoos who are hostile, but I haven’t encountered any.
So, again
Work your way up as your comfort level allows. Maybe start on the Upper Hiwassee, try out that roll at the bottom of rapids or in the deep rapids like Thread the Needle and Devil’s Shoals.
If that feels good, try the Nantahala a couple of times. It moves a little more and has a few bigger rapids. Run the falls (Lesser Wesser) a few times and they have a little training area below there with gates and play areas. If you can run the falls without flipping or swimming and you feel confident, then you might be ready for middle Ocoee with sneak lines.
Boat control, eddy turns and a good roll become a lot more important on the Ocoee. If you are running out of control, missing eddies, or blowing your ferries, you can have a pretty ugly day even on the middle section.
Those three runs and maybe a couple of others will keep you entertained for a while. And there are ways to do partial runs if you want a little more after you take out. The Nanty is very nice in that aspect, you can put on almost anywhere.
Hope you find what you’re looking to get into…