On Saturday of September 9th, our troop went to the Ocoee River on a rafting trip. We started near the waterfall at the beginning of the river. The first rapid was shortly after we got in the water.
This rapid was not too intense and was a good introduction to the river. The raft I was in was one of the fastest and we frequently had to stop to wait on the rest of our troop. A while down the river it started to rain.
This made the trip much colder than it already was. During the worst part of the rain, we stopped along a rock to wait on the rest of our troop. Our guide asked us if we wanted to try to surf. This is done by positioning the raft in a fall of the rapid.
When we tried this, water flooded the front of the boat. We tried this twice and the first time it felt like we were going to flip over. Shortly after this, we came across the most exciting rapid in the river, nicknamed “table saw”. This rapid was 3 falls repeating right after another.
On this rapid, the boat in front of us nearly flipped. After this rapid, we were nearly done. The last rapid was a big drop because of a rock obstructing the river. This trip took about 2 to 3 hours to complete and was one of my favorite trips.
Will Thompson
Historian of Troop 101