Putting a leash on the dog days of summer
It's a Sunday afternoon, just after 1 p.m. Another dog-day afternoon where temps have soared into the upper 90s. Sugarloaf Mountain Park, at the foot of Ocoee Dam No. 1, is tucked in the verdant, sprawling foothills of the Cherokee National Forest in Benton, TN, twenty minutes east of Cleveland.
My neighbor, Sarah, had offered a last-minute invitation to get out of Chattanooga and join her friends Becca, Leroy, and Ralph for an impromptu adventure on the Lower Ocoee. Snapping on life vests, our five-person fleet with yellow tubes eases into the river. The cold water shocks, in a good way, an exhilarating tonic and welcome combatant against the heat.
As the gentle current spins our tubes, two young girls bob past in a flamingo and unicorn. “Oh my,” Becca says. “I have unicorn envy.”
Becca Wilson began navigating the Ocoee in 2005. For seven seasons she worked as a rafting guide at Outdoor Adventure Rafting (OAR), a 28-acre outpost offering tubing and whitewater trips, ropes course, paintball, and camping.
“My very first experience tubing, I took a group of Boy Scouts down during a thunderstorm and we got lost,” Becca says. “It really helps if you’re getting out anywhere other than OAR to go and inspect the take-out and tie a fluorescent marker to a tree. The woods look a lot different from the river. I learned that the hard way.”
OAR, three-and-a-half miles from Dam No. 1, is the only company with riverside access to the Lower Ocoee and the only outfit that requires guides to be CPR, Swiftwater Rescue, and Wilderness First Responder certified. “It’s basically summer camp for big kids. You work hard and play hard. You’re excited to go to your job everyday—even though it’s a little strenuous,” Becca says. “You get into the best shape of your life,” she adds. “Now I just come here for fun.”
As we glide downstream, vibrant and varied songs of birds echo down from the willows, birch, and sycamores shouldering the shore. The only sound, other than our winged choir, is the laughter of fellow tubers and folks fishing from small docks. Dragonflies skim the soft ripples. The shallow waters reveal schools of blue gills darting along submerged logs.
About two miles in, the Ocoee—Cherokee for Passiflora incarnata, or wild apricot—is deep enough to abandon our tubes and go for a swim. Leroy spies a rope swing and scrambles up a 15-foot rock formation. His acrobatic cannonball garners applause not only from those on the water but those sitting on porches perched upon the banks. A bearded man rocking in his chair offers: “She’s running lazy today, ain’t she.”
The Lower Ocoee makes up 12 of 93 miles of river which starts in Georgia (56 miles are known as the Toccoa before becoming the Ocoee in Tennessee). While the Lower Ocoee enjoys its laid-back reputation, the Middle and Upper have become prized for the power of their rapids. In 1996, the Ocoee hosted the Olympic kayak and canoe events. Boasting class III and IV rapids with names like Broken Nose, Double Suck, and Tablesaw, the Middle Ocoee is the most rafted single section of river in the United States.
The flow of the Ocoee is controlled by three TVA dams. For tubing, at least two generators must be in operation. The TVA provides a water release schedule, an important tool when trip planning.
“We’ve been fortunate to have such an accessible—and also dam controlled—river,” says Rob Paden, owner of OAR. “You don’t have to worry about whether it’s been raining or if we’ve had a dry season. It’s always the same. People can count on the river.”
Of the activities OAR offers, tubing is Rob’s favorite. “I love that float because it’s so serene. It’s calm. It’s quiet. There’s nothing to worry about on that river,” he says. “For me, it clears my head.” He adds, “Cell phones don’t work here. That’s a blessing. You disconnect from WiFi and media and all of that stuff. You talk to one another instead of texting one another.”
For $14 per person, OAR can accommodate parties of four to 200 at time which includes tube, life vest, and transportation. However, $5 will get you access to OAR’s parking and take-out.
“You don’t need a lot,” Becca says. “A tube, closed toe water shoes, a water bottle. A life jacket (required by law), and lots of sunscreen! And of course a sense of adventure.”
After an hour and a half, our Ocoee journey comes to an end as we reach the OAR take-out. Our crew, now christened “the tubing buddies”, is slightly sunburned but revitalized. While summer may be fading, there’s still time for one more adventure.
Jason Tinney is an author, actor, and musician. He can be seen locally blowing harmonica with singer/songwriter Eric Shelton. Jason, unfortunately, has not yet learned how to use sunscreen.