Students have a rip-roaring good time at Tennessee River

By Colleen Griffiths
Staff Writer

Twenty adventure-seeking UNCP students and faculty members tested their stamina as they hazarded the wild waters of the Ocoee River in Tennessee Oct. 1.

“All forward, hard!” white water rafting guide James yelled as five UNCP students plunged their paddles into the raging river and stroked furiously as they headed into churning rapids.

Photo by Colleen Griffiths UNCP students descend into the dangerous rapid known as the “Double Suck” at Ocoee River in Tennessee.

The front of the raft dipped and flushed into a chute of water. My heart froze as I felt the raft buckle and then we traveled in calm water.

Everyone smiled, but James told us to pick up our paddles because the next rapid quickly approached.

The trip to the Ocoee was sponsored by the Office of Student Affairs. An e-mail was sent out to all UNCP students and those who were interested in the trip signed up in the Student Affairs office two weeks before the departure.

We arrived at the Nantahala Outdoor Center and listened to rafting guide Jeremy as he explained rafting safety.

“If you happen to have an out of raft experience, this is what you need to do,” he said. ”Lie back in the water and keep your feet out in front of you. Do not try to stand up, even if the water is shallow. You can get your foot caught in a rock and the current can drown you.”

We begin to calm down on the bus ride to the drop-off.

The drop-off was located next to a dam that released water into the river. We got into the raft two at a time, grabbed our paddles and at the command of our guide, we cast off into the river and head to the rapids.

After making it through a few rapids, James turned to us and said, “You have a choice with the next one. We can either go right over it or we can head straight into it, where there’s a chance that we may get sucked under.”

“Let’s get sucked under,” Lindsay Bartholf said.

The rapid up ahead was called “Double Suck.” The rapid got its name from the water that accelerates between the boulders creating a sucking sensation.

“Right before we go over the first suck hole,” James said. “Get down!”

Immediately everyone pulled in his or her paddles and ducked down into the raft.

The raft shot over one suck hole and then the other. We were in calm water before I knew it. “‘The Double Suck’ was awesome, ” UNCP student Joe Evans said.

Despite the name or level of difficulty, we survived the rapids of the Ocoee River. “We just nailed it!” Evans said.

he Ocoee River, located in east Tennessee is in the heart of the Cherokee National Forest. It was the site of the 1996 Olympic whitewater slalom events.