On July 3rd of this year, 2015, there was so much upstream rainfall that the Ocoee ran 8500 cfs. Rafting companies were totally booked for the 4th of July weekend, but had to cancel all trips because of the outrageous water levels. Outpost owners were furious that TVA had not been releasing water over the two days during the week that we do not raft, because it was believed that if they had done so it might have washed out enough water to provide more suitable rafting levels by the weekend.
While the owners and managers were frustrated and angry with TVA, I couldn't help being elated. The previous day I had rafted the Ocoee at 4,000 cfs and thought it was awesome! It was first experience with high water. But to find out it was running almost 9 grand was more excitement than I could contain. I never thought I would have that opportunity by my second year as a raft guide.
Immediately I started trying to put together a team of people to go down the river. None of the senior raft guides would go. They said they'd seen too many people get hurt, too many die, and they wanted nothing to do with it. They said they would've gone when they were younger and dumber, but not now. I realized I was the young and dumb one, but that was okay. I was hungry for adrenaline. I wanted this experience. I knew the risk, and I was willing to take it. Could not the Lord take care of me in any situation?
Most people I asked to come with us declined, until at last we had a 7 man crew consisting of 3 rookies and 4 second-year guides. This was not an Olympic crew by any means, but we felt competent enough we thought we could survive. Of the second-year guides, we chose Chris Storgion, a young man who had been on the Gauley River in West Virginia, to guide our boat. It is a Class V river, which meant he was the one with the most big water experience. He was also simply a good guide - confident in his skill and able to command a crew.
The only hitch in our endeavor was the fact that the only boat available for use was one none of us had ever paddled and was missing the front thwart. There were footcups in the front, so...that was good. There would be no warm-up to test how the raft maneuvered, no practicing at all. We were going to put in just below the first rapid and there we would be, on the Ocoee River at 8500 cfs.
When we first put the boat in the water and got in, the current was so strong we struggled to get out of the trees and brush on the bank. When we finally did, we could feel the incredible speed of the water. In a matter of seconds we were at the Staging Eddy, the first place we all stop on a normal rafting trip. There wasn't actually an eddy anymore - it was washed out. But there was some calmer water that we slowed down in while waiting for some friends to catch up. We had three friends rafting separately in a small Puma, and one friend, a senior raft guide and brother to our company's owner, who was kayaking. We gathered ourselves and headed downstream for Broken Nose - a Class IV rapid and normal flow, a Class V at this level. We scouted it out as we came around the bend in the river and decided to go far left of the whole rapid. In lieu of running Broken Nose, we got to hit several huge holes that developed from all the rocks and boulders in the middle of the river. As we came into Slice and Dice, I looked over to my right and saw a huge hole big enough to fit a commercial van in. That hole was created by a rock shelf that's so obviously above water at normal flow we rarely pay attention to it. This same principle would be our near downfall further downstream.
Washing Machine was my favorite hit at 8500. In the video footage you can see the waves that we crash into, but there is no way for a person to possibly conceive of the power and force with which those waves hit you unless you've experienced it. What looks like fun in the video felt like terror in real life.
As we approached Double Suck, Chris intended to hit the meat of it. He was only deterred by our earnest imploring that we avoid it to the right. I had seen what Double Suck looked like the day before at 4,000. I knew that sometimes those things wash out at bigger water levels, but I sincerely did not want to chance dying in a cabin sized hydraulic hole. So we skirted Double Suck to the right, only to realize that it was in fact washed out into more of a standing curler wave (which was pretty cool). However, we had not considered that the rock shelf immediately downstream from that rapid would create a giant hole. We were used to ignoring it. So with full force, we crashed down into the meat of an alien hydraulic. Chris was flung into the middle of our boat, the boat was slung into the hole sideways, my friend Levi fell out of the boat, and we were getting surfed. It was terrifying. We paddled our hind ends off trying to just keep the boat straight while it was getting surfed, lest we should go in sideways again and flip. That could have entailed death for any one of us. All it would take would be to get separated from the raft and swim into a hydraulic hole that recirculated your body until you drowned. Levi finally resurfaced, hand clutching the strap on the side of the boat. One of the guys pulled him in while we kept it straight. His life jacket had come unzipped in the swim. Whether the boat endered out of the hole or whether we actually paddled our way out of it, I have no idea. It all happened too fast. But we made it out, and we were all okay. Just a bit shake up with racing hearts. But that is, after all, why we do these things.
Downstream we continued to hit big waves, trying to avoid the nasty holes. Stephen, our kayaking friend, would advise us on how to run rapids; he had run the Ocoee a couple of years before at 10,000 cfs. In the second half of the river, our biggest concern was making it through Tablesaw and Diamond Splitter, two Class III+ rapids at normal flow, Class V now. When Stephen had gone out at 10,000, the other boat in his group flipped in Tablesaw and a good friend of mine swam almost a mile of the river. They thought they might lose him. So we were wary as we approached these rapids and discussed our plan. As we came into Tablesaw, we ran the right side of the line over Prudential Rock. To our immediate left was a massive hole created by the giant boulders there on the bank. We cranked the boat right to hit Diamond Splitter, T-ed up on the waves, and ran it clean, sliding by the small rock sticking about two feet out of the water (normally the Diamond Splitter rock protrudes a good 15 or so feet out of the water - certainly a landmark). At the bottom of the rapid we cheered and threw up high fives, elated to have made it through. Just as we were calming down, we realized we had been too careless in our celebration. None of us thought about what kind of waves or holes the rocks past Diamond Splitter might create, and I yelled out "Oh, heads up!" as we drifted dead sideways into a hole. Everyone in the back of the boat, myself included, fell out. I remember the feeling of terror as I felt by body pulled by gravity over the edge of the raft, plummeting into the muddy water. I was sucked down, but quickly began to resurface...only to find myself hitting the underside of the boat. I scrambled below it, and was promptly recirculated further under the water. I was terrified that I was caught in some kind of hydraulic, and I began to resurface a second time and hit the underside of the raft again. The thought ran through my mind, "Perhaps the boat is stuck here getting surfed, and perhaps I'm getting recirculated underneath it. Maybe this is how I'll die." These thoughts occurred to me over a period of time that felt like an absolute eternity. You'll notice however in the video that I'm only in the water approximately 5 seconds. It's incredible how time slows down when your adrenaline is racing and you're in immediate danger.
I did finally resurface next to the boat and my friend Dan pulled me in. We pulled in the others, too, and thanks to the Lord, we were all okay. We recollected ourselves, managed to catch a tree on the bank and breath for a second, and then we kept going.
At the end of the river we hit several massive waves and found the water to be level with the pavement at the takeout. We paddled over to the bank, stepped out, and cheered. Friends who had followed us in their cars met us here and congratulated us. Park Rangers looked on in amusement. My friend Leon, who had followed by car and watched us get surfed after Double Suck said with a grin, "You can smell the adrenaline on you guys!" It was a great day. We packed up the gear, headed back to the outpost, and agreed that yes, we would do it again.
To watch the 34 minute video footage of our trip, click this link below:
Ocoee at 8500 cfs - Unedited Footage
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