Foothills Paddling Club hosted their annual East Tennessee Pilgrimage on Labor Day weekend. Eastern TN/Western NC have an abundance of whitewater rivers within a close distance so it is a perfect location for a paddling get-together since there’s a river for every skill level. We packed up the raft and kayaks and headed to Murphy, NC for an enjoyable long weekend of camping, paddling, and socializing.
We set up camp at the same campground we had stayed at last year and got a prime spot since we were one of the first ones to arrive. Scott joined a few of the hardcore FPC’ers and they ran a lap on the middle Ocoee. I was their “shuttle bunny” that day and helped drop them off and would meet them a bit later at the takeout. While they kayaked I set up the hammock at the Olympic section of the river- site of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic whitewater canoe and kayaking events. The dam was closed that day but I still enjoyed seeing the rocks and rapids. I find it interesting how the 500 meter stretch of river was narrowed and modified, and had rocks strategically altered, placed, and engineered to create Olympic level features and rapids. (Unfortunately the Olympic Center building burned down in April of 2022.) I picked them up at the agreed upon time and they re-lived their day’s adventures while we drove back to camp.
The next day we went to the middle Ocoee again- this time I was in the raft. We were guided by the very competent Cade Puckett, a former professional raft guide on the Ocoee. He knew every rock, line, eddy, and ripple of this river and I found it helpful to hear his thoughts on guiding. He gave me an opportunity to guide and gave me some instruction and feedback. I would eventually like to guide our raft by myself and this was an invaluable experience. We had a textbook perfect run! Scott kayaked alongside us and had a wonderful day on the river.
We took a trip to the Hiawassee on Sunday. This time I was in a kayak! The Hiawassee is a wide and shallow river and has lots of shoals. The section we kayaked was mild and only had Class I-III rapids but the sound that the shoals create is rather impressive. That noise combined with my lack of familiarity with the river caused me to have a minor meltdown and panic attack about ⅓ of the way down the river. I am appreciative of all the fellow paddlers on the trip that offered me support and kind words while I was scared and stressed. Despite my freak-out, I actually had a successful PFD but was quite thankful to be back on dry land and back at camp later that evening! Dinner was hamburgers cooked on the mountain-man grill. Scott’s camp dinners are to die for and this one didn’t disappoint.
Rain started that night and on Labor Day morning we packed up a soggy camp (I made a mental note to bring a pair of rubber boots the next time we camped) and headed back to SC. The plan was for some of the Greenville area folks to run Twelve Mile Creek which was at a runnable level because of the rain. It is in Central, SC and has a two mile run of Class II-III rapids. It was only about 15 minutes away from Scott’s house so that was nice. I played the role of shuttle bunny again and got to watch the boaters over the first rapid. We made it home in time for a Labor Day get-together at the Bouchard’s house.
https://www.gopaddlesc.com/waterways/trail/twelvemile-creek
