Sunset photo by Samantha Brunner
Me & Sam pulled out at 1 pm Friday heading east... settin' us up for an interesting ride through M. Day traffic. We stopped at Walmart for some food in Jackson, and ate at Moe's... With our full bellies we hit Nashville at 5:00... just in time for rush hour traffic. We made it out by about 5:30 or 5:45 and were off on 70 to Rock Island, where we picked up Sam's new pink Hero and my dad's new orange Rocker... We decided to use the rest of our time to outfit Sam's boat. We got everything outfitted and loaded up and were off again by 8 pm... with a recent call from Drew about Tellico levels we took off to the Tellico for a nice long sleep in our car and good water for the coming morning... yeah right!
We got to the tellico late and it was crankin' at ~3 ft and Bald River was goin' off...but unfortunately, ALL the camping sites were full! The Baby Falls lot was stuffed with fishermen in big RVs. All the boaters who'd flocked for the rain, were crashin' in there cars at the Takeout and the other pull-offs... it was getting late so we crashed at the Tellico put-in... sort of. About 1 AM (we hadn't even really been alseep yet) a 2 spotlights and a pair of headlights flared into the back of my truck and blue and white lights flickered around us. I got my shoes on and stuff...and climbed out of the back of my truck, completely blinded by the lights. lucky for us, he turned out to be a good friend of ours and he asked about Memphis and we talked for a bit... but we still had to leave. With no other real options, we went back to Tellico Plains and checked out the KOA... but of course it was full... long story & LONG night short... we ended up in a Save-a-Lot parking lot... disturbed through the morning by an 18 wheeler unloading in the back (where we were parked)... needless to say, we got like NO sleep...At ALL! The night before that I maybe slept 4 hours and before that only 2 hours...etc... literally.
So completely wiped out at the start, we headed over to the put-in and to meet up with Lauren Burress and her parents, Nathan and Kathleen. With the Tellico at 2.5 feet at 7 AM, we decided it was our best..immediate option. We ran the ledges to the take out and had a GREAT run down! Sam tried out her new Jackson Hero and apparently LOVED it. At that point, we were running a bit late so I got some gas and took off to the Cheoah, trying to meet up with Drew, MW and everyone... as well as my friend Nate. The traffic on the "Tail of the Dragon" (the road we took) was Terrible and SlOW!!! Usually I can make it from the Tellico to Cheoah in 1 hour... took a bit more this time. We missed everyone at Cheoah and put on with Lauren and her dad a bit later and cruised on down.
Photo of Lauren Burress by Samantha B.
Photo of Nathan B. by Samantha Brunner.
For those that don't know, Lauren Burress is a 10 year old girl sponsored by Fortress, Jackson, Werner, Stohlquist,Keen, Sweet, and others? ...girls got the hook up! Well anyways, it was their first time down Cheoah so I led them down and showed them some fun lines and sweet spots... Lauren completely styled cheoah, being the youngest kid I've seen on it yet (Dane is 12). She walked Bear Creek Falls with the wise descretion of her dad, but she styled the West Prong Line on the lower 3rd of B.C. Rapid like it was nothing. I was a bit impressed. Sam led herself down it (only boat scouting) shortly after... I was super impressed with her too...
I guess the closest thing we got to carnage was at "God's Dam"... where I got to watch (from just below), Nathan, Lauren, and Sam Surf the hole at God's Dam... luckily they all surfed it out to the "pin rock" side and pulled their way through the froth over there. The pin rock was already clogged with a girl's blue boat so it wasn't as much of an issue They all made it out in their boats and without breaking too much of a sweat...and more importantly, with big grins of relief.
After Cheoah Everyone was beat and had way more than enough, but me and Nathan decided to check out the cascades (only 30 min. away). We showed up to "The Horns of God"... "the horns" for short" ... and found a very very low flow... really a no go. A third run looked hopeless, but I decided to check out Whiteoak Falls anyways. Amazingly enough, nearly ALL the volume in the cascades was only coming from Whiteoak Creek. I found out later that because of the new scheduled releases on the Cascades, the don't release the minimum runnable level anymore.... AT ALL... Did we really get the good end of the deal on that one? anyways... Whiteoak was actually at a GREAT level for the falls... not bad at all. I fired it up and then decided to give it another go... Great lines both time and it felt sweet. I never really get tired of that drop if I'm already in the area.
Photo by Samantha B.
Close up of me by Samantha B.
So Day one: Tellico @ ~2.4 ft, Cheoah @ 1200 cfs (felt like less), and for me - Whiteoak Falls twice... not bad for one day.
From there we ate Mexican in Andrews (always say Murphy for some reason...but it's in Andrews)... We hung out there until around 9 pm local... and my Friend nate called and reserved me a site with "Club Sack" at Wesser... So we decided to hang with them. And get a... say it together... "GOOD NIGHTS SLEEP"... YEAH RIGHT!!!! Well.. this time we forked up $15 and we were legal, safe, and in a campground...what could possibly happen!?!?!?!ALL night long... a small dog yelped and barked NON-STOP... ALL NIGHT real close to our site. Someone eventually tried to move the dog and his bark turned into even higher pitched yelps... We got no sleep again... it sucked. seeing a trend here???
We were completely determined to meet up with memphis Whitewater THIS time and convinced Nate, Evan, and Bert to meet up with us for the Upper Ocoee too... We forced our self out of my truck and I peeled my eyes open, trying to ignore the SUPER annoying dog.. and we took off to the Ocoee. Long story short we were ALL together by the time we hit Alien Boof... And had an AWESOME time down the ocoee. At that point, I was completely worthless but it was fun to be on the water and paddling with so many good friends. Me and Sam finally took off for Memphis again (asleep before we even started I think...) but we made it back before 11 pm... and Sam spent the night at my house so she wouldn't have to drive home. SOMEHOW that girl woke me up early this mornin' and now I'm finally about to go to bed... as soon as I eat my 4th meal of the day - cereal... I'll probably finish off a box or two
It's looking Like I'm leaving again in 2 more days...gotta love it!
- Boyd
Photo by Lauren Burress
Photo by Samantha B.
