Air 2 Ocoee River (SE TN) Rafting

tlswift58 · Jul 4, 2021

The Ocoee River in SE TN - east of Chattanooga on Hwy 74 towards NC is a favorite of both kayakers and rafters. The river provides up to Class IV rapids; but most are in the II / III category. Weekends are huge here and hundreds of rafters / kayakers come to run the the river. TVA typically opens the dams along the river to provide adequate flow Friday - Sunday.

Hwy 74 skirts the river for miles, so plenty of places to pull over and fly a drone or some places have bridges / walkways that are great to drone from or shoot pictures with a camera.

This is just one stop along the road. Up near Dam #2, which is a main put in point for all rafters / kayakers is a better spot to drone. I have some videos from up there and even further up the river near the Whitewater Center where the rapids can be quite intense. (waiting to upload to Vimeo to post here).

Sadly, no sound / music as I don't currently do that kind of editing.

Phantomrain.org · Jul 4, 2021

Great video, I spent the first 3 minutes trying to figure out the sign languange going on with the Raft that was stuck. lol

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your AIR 2/S in the Rain and Float on the Water.

tlswift58 · Jul 5, 2021

Phantomrain.org said:
Great video, I spent the first 3 minutes trying to figure out the sign languange going on with the Raft that was stuck. lol

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your AIR 2/S in the Rain and Float on the Water.

I thought it very weird the "guide" was out in the river - yet that is their job should something happen. Another video had the whole raft bailing out to get it back on track - not sure that was a good idea - but ya gotta do what ya gotta do to get back floating.

Had planned on trying to do one of the raft trips - as they are not expensive - about $50 depending on company you book with - but did not pan out and Ocoee is much farther from my home in WNC than other rivers closer by. Did take my granddaughter on the Chattooga - between GA / NC / SC on a moderate run - up to Class IV - and it as lots of fun. We had more activities than just rafting along the way to keep the fun level higher. Still want to do the Ocoee for sure.

Phantomrain.org · Jul 5, 2021

tlswift58 said:
I thought it very weird the "guide" was out in the river - yet that is their job should something happen. Another video had the whole raft bailing out to get it back on track - not sure that was a good idea - but ya gotta do what ya gotta do to get back floating.

Had planned on trying to do one of the raft trips - as they are not expensive - about $50 depending on company you book with - but did not pan out and Ocoee is much farther from my home in WNC than other rivers closer by. Did take my granddaughter on the Chattooga - between GA / NC / SC on a moderate run - up to Class IV - and it as lots of fun. We had more activities than just rafting along the way to keep the fun level higher. Still want to do the Ocoee for sure.

I love rafting , I hired a Kayaker to Film my adventure: 2010 the Upper Gauley WV
The waters will Class 5 but the River was the highest it had been and it was wicked.

Family of 8 Tipped , there daughter got trapped in the vortex of the rocks as she was trying to swim back to the boat instead of watching where she was floating to . These water were out of control

We were behind ,

and that me trying to dive in to grab the young girl that got caught in the vortex in between the rocks completely under water , that force was brutal and I could not budge her and I almost lost my life as i could not get my head back out .

Days latter they had to get a Crane to get her out , but she was gone in seconds .
the other 7 family members floated down the river , and they said that the family had no business on the class 5 rapids for there first time. but really those waters were fiece and they could have gotten anyone,

Moral of the story : Never let yourself float backwards , Be careful.

Coal

Prop Wash · Jul 5, 2021

Looked good!

flightrisk · Jul 19, 2021

Phantomrain.org said:
Great video, I spent the first 3 minutes trying to figure out the sign languange going on with the Raft that was stuck. lol

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your AIR 2/S in the Rain and Float on the Water.

Looks like he had a virgin crew. Eddys, where the water flows upstream to an obstacle, are great for scouting the next rapid or resting. Seems they were deciding to try river left, instead of right. The Ocoee has several places where the water is different, depending on the route. It is more difficult for rafts to surf, than it is for kayaks, so gotta pick your spots. Surfing can be easier on hydraulics, which it appears he was motioning. That's where the water rolls (against the downstream side of a restriction or obstacle.) And, if you fall out of the raft, you can get tumbled until you are kicked out or picked out.

flightrisk · Jul 19, 2021

Phantomrain.org said:
I love rafting , I hired a Kayaker to Film my adventure: 2010 the Upper Gauley WV
The waters will Class 5 but the River was the highest it had been and it was wicked.

Family of 8 Tipped , there daughter got trapped in the vortex of the rocks as she was trying to swim back to the boat instead of watching where she was floating to . These water were out of control

We were behind ,
View attachment 131581

and that me trying to dive in to grab the young girl that got caught in the vortex in between the rocks completely under water , that force was brutal and I could not budge her and I almost lost my life as i could not get my head back out .

View attachment 131582

Days latter they had to get a Crane to get her out , but she was gone in seconds .
the other 7 family members floated down the river , and they said that the family had no business on the class 5 rapids for there first time. but really those waters were fiece and they could have gotten anyone,

Moral of the story : Never let yourself float backwards , Be careful.

Coal

Around 1990, a doctor drowned in Lesser Wesser on the Nantahala (N Carolina, not far from the Ocoee.) That was only a class III, but it was before the trap was eliminated.

Bamudd · May 25, 2022

Old thread, but--I'm both a drone pilot and a guide on the Ocoee river (and in fact I know at least two of the guides in this video). If you have any questions about why they're doing what they're doing I'd be happy to answer.

In particular, this is right below the rapid called Double Suck, which is a common rapid where customers fall out. Not particularly dangerous, but can be scary for the inexperienced.

The guy who is "stuck" in the eddy behind the little rock in the middle of the river is there on purpose. I won't use real names, but he's a very experienced guide. That's a spot where trip leaders or other senior guides will stop to make sure the rest of their trip gets through without incident. If someone does fall out, it's a perfectly positioned spot to rescue them into the TL's boat.

The hand signal that he gives swirling his finger in a circle means something along the lines of hurry up. The other two blue boats were probably planning to go back into the hole at the bottom of the drop and surf, which basically means get stuck in the hydraulic on purpose in a surfing action like a surfboard, for fun. It's great, one of my favorite parts of guiding. The TL probably signaled to go because he saw the orange boats coming down steam and decided that since the boats coming down would have right of way there wasn't time in their schedule to wait and surf longer.

Also, note the great line by the first orange boat guide, who's a friend of mine. He took a fun but safe line since it's slightly high water that gave his customers a good ride with a big hit but kept them safely in the boat.

Good work by all concerned. I'll be starting back up this weekend, if anyone wants to come rafting my name is Ben and I'm at Quest Expeditions, feel free to ask for me

Phantomrain.org · May 25, 2022

Bamudd said:
The hand signal that he gives swirling his finger in a circle means something along the lines of hurry up. The other two blue boats were probably planning to go back into the hole at the bottom of the drop and surf, which basically means get stuck in the hydraulic on purpose in a surfing action like a surfboard, for fun. It's great, one of my favorite parts of guiding. The TL probably signaled to go because he saw the orange boats coming down steam and decided that since the boats coming down would have right of way there wasn't time in their schedule to wait and surf longer.

Also, note the great line by the first orange boat guide, who's a friend of mine. He took a fun but safe line since it's slightly high water that gave his customers a good ride with a big hit but kept them safely in the boat.

Good work by all concerned. I'll be starting back up this weekend, if anyone wants to come rafting my name is Ben and I'm at Quest Expeditions, feel free to ask for me

Are there any drone laws that have been put into place as far as Rafting down the gulley either in TN WV. Do you get a good GPS signal in between the Canyon walls.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the in the Rain and Land on the River.