The Ocoee River is a great place to Raft in Tennessee. It's located In the southeast corner of the state. The rapids are fun, but not too serious, mostly class III and IV. There is a damn upstream as well, so the should be fairly consistent during the season.
It's been some time since I went, so I can't remember the name of the particular group we used, but, like many of these places, there are several compainies to choose from. Whoever you wind up going with, you will probably start out on the deep water above the damn, learning how to work with your raft mates. Once you do board the raft, it is fairly nonstop until you reach the deeper, slow waters near the end. Here you will have the opportunity to climb out of the boat and float in the water.
This is a half day activity, and a particularly good location for the first time rafter. I highly recommend a visit here, especially if you find your self in the Chatanooga area, which is the closest larg city. A
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Thursday, August 16, 2007
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Wild on Mammoth (think Discovery, not E!)
The Wild Cave tour at mammoth caves is a unique experience, and doing it is an accomplishment I’m pretty proud of. The web site describes it as :
It is a 6 hour tour, covering in that time only about 5.5 miles.
The tour has a capacity limit of 14, but when we went we were fortunate enough to have only ourselves and two other guests on the tour, with the 2 guides that made six people, and because of that we were able to more move quickly through the tour and see more of the cave. They took us through some of the easier parts of the tour first, climbing up round rocks and through narrow tunnels. They looped back into the same room 3 times, from different directions, demonstrating how easy it can be to become lost in a cave, and how difficult it can be to recognize that you are going in circles. Then there was a test of sorts.
Before they could take us to some of the other areas, they had to make sure we weren’t claustrophobic. We all had to crawl through a small section of the cave that was so narrow you had to scoot in as far as you could, let out your breath, and push through the narrowest section. If you had gotten stuck, you would have been able to breathe only very shallowly. If is scary for everyone I think, but if you can do it, nothing else on the tour will even make you feel uncomfortable. The location of this is right at a major tour route through the cave, so if you can’t do it, they just leave you there, to get picked up on a more conventional tour. We didn’t have any chickens with us, so we continued on our grueling path, which can more or less be described by the physical challenges above.
The part about crawling over jagged rocks isn’t talking about something like gravel. The rocks are very sharp and remind me more of the underside of volcanic rock. We stopped to eat some food, which we packed in our fanny packs (I know, but we had to buy some for this and it’s the only time we’ve ever used them). We even arrived at the bottom of a deep pit at one point. Everywhere along the route were large orange duffle bags with items for emergencies, a constant reminder to pay attention, and not get hurt down here. We had a great time, and because there were so few of us, we had plenty of time to ask questions and listen to stories. We arrived after 6 hours back on the surface, exhausted and dirty.
We then realized we hadn’t brought clean clothes, or even towels to cover the car seats with. Oh well. We were so tired that we only got as far as Bowling Green, before we pulled over in a Kroger parking lot to take a nap. I always tell myself I’ll do this again someday, but every time I think about it, my stomach knots up a little bit: “you don’t really want to do that again do you?” it says. Well, maybe someday…
Overall this is an awesome experience, and if you’re in reasonably good shape, you should give this a shot. You must be at least 16, and those under 18 must be with an adult. Hip or chest measurements should not exceed 42 inches, and the cost is $46 per person. Yeah, and don’t forget those extra clothes : ) A+
Physical Challenges: Free-climbing cave walls; lengthy crawls through areas as tight as 9 inches high; walking in a crouched position; hand and knee crawls over jagged rocks and dirt; crawling through wet areas; twisting into and out of tight crawlway openings.
It is a 6 hour tour, covering in that time only about 5.5 miles.
The tour has a capacity limit of 14, but when we went we were fortunate enough to have only ourselves and two other guests on the tour, with the 2 guides that made six people, and because of that we were able to more move quickly through the tour and see more of the cave. They took us through some of the easier parts of the tour first, climbing up round rocks and through narrow tunnels. They looped back into the same room 3 times, from different directions, demonstrating how easy it can be to become lost in a cave, and how difficult it can be to recognize that you are going in circles. Then there was a test of sorts.
Before they could take us to some of the other areas, they had to make sure we weren’t claustrophobic. We all had to crawl through a small section of the cave that was so narrow you had to scoot in as far as you could, let out your breath, and push through the narrowest section. If you had gotten stuck, you would have been able to breathe only very shallowly. If is scary for everyone I think, but if you can do it, nothing else on the tour will even make you feel uncomfortable. The location of this is right at a major tour route through the cave, so if you can’t do it, they just leave you there, to get picked up on a more conventional tour. We didn’t have any chickens with us, so we continued on our grueling path, which can more or less be described by the physical challenges above.
The part about crawling over jagged rocks isn’t talking about something like gravel. The rocks are very sharp and remind me more of the underside of volcanic rock. We stopped to eat some food, which we packed in our fanny packs (I know, but we had to buy some for this and it’s the only time we’ve ever used them). We even arrived at the bottom of a deep pit at one point. Everywhere along the route were large orange duffle bags with items for emergencies, a constant reminder to pay attention, and not get hurt down here. We had a great time, and because there were so few of us, we had plenty of time to ask questions and listen to stories. We arrived after 6 hours back on the surface, exhausted and dirty.
We then realized we hadn’t brought clean clothes, or even towels to cover the car seats with. Oh well. We were so tired that we only got as far as Bowling Green, before we pulled over in a Kroger parking lot to take a nap. I always tell myself I’ll do this again someday, but every time I think about it, my stomach knots up a little bit: “you don’t really want to do that again do you?” it says. Well, maybe someday…
Overall this is an awesome experience, and if you’re in reasonably good shape, you should give this a shot. You must be at least 16, and those under 18 must be with an adult. Hip or chest measurements should not exceed 42 inches, and the cost is $46 per person. Yeah, and don’t forget those extra clothes : ) A+
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