These will be a lot more helpful to everyone in the southeast US
than to everyone else, but I hope you will all enjoy some of my trip
reports. I won't give a complete blow by blow of each rapid, use
the internet and guidebooks for that, but I will give my general
opinion on the river and a little on what to expect.
Back in August I ran the Ocoee river in southeast TN. It is a good
class III and IV roadside road along Hwy. 64/74. We didn't do the
upper ocoee because you have to pay a small fee to park there and
the releases aren't as often. There will be more releases on the
upper in the spring and it is supposed to be more difficult with
some bigger ledges. It is the part of the river that was
articifially altered for the 96 olympics.
We did the middle Ocoee. You can park along side the road on the
shoulder or pay the parking fee. The put in is just below the dam.
My general impression was that the first mile or two was very
boney. I don't know what the release was that day, but I could've
used a little more water. There were a lot of times where you
almost got stuck on a shelf of rock and a lot of short two foot
ledges without a lot of water to land on. This first part was bump
and scrap. I got through here with a bloody nose and also cracked
by bodyboard from side to side on one of the ledges. After we got
to the confluence with Goforth Creek, things picked up and it became
a big wave type of river. I was now enjoying things even though I
was keeping the bodyboard together by pressing down on it in the big
stuff. Some of the highlights were double trouble and also this
steep five or six foot slide into deep water to the right of a giant
boulder. When you see the powerhouse, the two biggest waves are
coming up. The approach to them gets shallow again, but then you
get the fun of hell wave and hole, and powerhouse back to back. The
waves are big and fun, but gentle. They are rolling waves without a
lot of curl to them, so it's just up and over. On the second run we
parked at the Goforth Creek confluence in a small lot and walked
under the bridge of the main highway. This made a short run and
elimated all the scrapy stuff. I'd recommend starting from here if
the water is low. If you run it on a bodyboard, especially the
entire run , make sure it is a good quality one and wear gloves or
your knuckles will pay the price from holding onto the underside of
the board. It is a good run to take beginners if you know the river
or also someone who is looking to move up from the Nanty or a
similar river.