Sunday, October 14, 2007

I've been trying to get up the guts to run the entire Upper Ocoee since 2005. Unfortunately I didn't have a very good winter from 2005 to 2006 and my confidence was a little low last year. My confidence level has been climbing for the last year or so and by the end of summer I was ready to run the Upper Ocoee.

I tried to get groups together over the last three weeks of the scheduled Ocoee Releases for the upper section but every week the group fell apart. Finally I resigned myself to just waiting until next year . . . but wait, I got a second chance! Due to the need for maintenance, TVA announced that the scheduled releases for the Middle Ocoee would be met by spilling water from Dam #3, through the Upper section. This meant that there would be additional chances to run it.

Kenny Warwick emailed and then called, trying to convince me to run it. However, I had been paddling class II for a couple of weeks and wasn't in the mood to push myself. Besides, I had been running the Middle Ocoee for several weeks before that and I was just getting sick of the Ocoee. I refused. Then within a few minutes of hanging up I realized that I probably was going to change my mind and do it. I had made alternate plans to paddle something exploratory but that fell through and I was free to go to the Upper.

I confirmed the meeting place and time and met Kenny Warwick and Brian Swafford a few minutes late at the lowest takeout. The plan was to run the both the Upper and Middle Ocoee sections in one fell swoop. We loaded up into Brian's truck just in case the gate was locked. We had heard that it might be possible to use the "old" put-in but that you would need a four wheel drive vehicle. This turned out to not be a problem because the gate on the "new" put-in was open and the gate to the "old" put-in was closed anyway. This avoided a long carry and everybody was happy.

I actually had run the first two miles of the upper twice before, taking out at the whitewater center both times. I had just had too much fear of the Olympic section to continue. Even though I had not finished the job, this experience paid off in terms of confidence. I found that the fact I had run the early stretches before calmed my nerves a bit when I finally launched into the waters of the Upper Ocoee.

The Upper Ocoee begins as a wilderness run. Unfortunately, due to the fact that it is dewatered most of the time, the stream bed is full of growing plants. Shrubs, small trees, and even entire thickets are growing in various places in the riverbed and it is necessary for paddlers to weave through all of this. The vegetation is a particular problem in the first mile or so. The rapids aren't too difficult in this area, mostly class II with a little stuff in the II+ to III- range, depending on the line you choose.

Finally you approach the river-wide broken ledge that hosts two commonly run lines: Alien and Mikey's (actually there are multiple lines within Mikey's as well). The left side of the ledge hosts Alien Boof, notable for being the largest shear drop on the Ocoee (probably about 7 feet or so) and also for having been the site of the drowning death of a popular raft guide. Since the release level was slightly lower than normal (TVA data indicates about 1200 cfs) everybody agreed to scout the drop. I have run Alien before twice and it looked a little low to me. Kenny and Brian both decided that the boof lip was too dry to be safe so we decided to ferry over and look at Mikey's from the boulders on the left side of the channel.

Mikey's looked slightly different to Kenny and Brian, but I couldn't remember it very well so I couldn't tell a difference. Various lines were discussed and two other kayakers came downstream and eddied out on river right after the first drop. They obviously then noticed that it looked different as well and got out to scout the second part of the drop from the bank. Finally they punched the hole on the bottom right and headed downstream shrugging.

We decided to give it a go. Brian and I decided that the boof on the left side of the channel still looked pretty good and Kenny decided to follow the right line that we had seen the other two kayakers run. Everybody ran it cleanly and I had a better line than the last time I ran it, when I had ended up bracing frantically to avoid flipping in the shallow run out.

At this point I started getting nervous because I knew Blue Hole was coming up. I have usually heard Blue Hole referred to as a IV- and I haven't run much class IV. This fact alone made me nervous. Sometimes it's difficult to get past the rating of a rapid, but I had run it before and I knew I could run it again. Ratings have proved to be ephemeral in the past and it's important to evaluate each rapid individually, regardless of how it is rated. If you think you can run it, go for it. Just be honest with yourself about your own abilities. Hubris is the enemy of safety.

Brian and I pulled out on the beach beneath some pine trees on river right and walked down to take a look at it. I couldn't remember it extremely well but there was one colossally bad looking hole near the bottom of the rapid in the middle that Brian said looked a good bit different due to the level. It was a very retentive looking large hole that essentially was piled up against a rock ledge on the downstream side. He usually runs down the middle but decided he wanted to avoid that bad stuff. Brian decided to run down the right side and we watched Kenny run down the right successfully, skirting a few giant holes and getting a little squirted on the last big drop.

When I ran Blue Hole before we had ferried across and slid down the left side, skirting holes carefully. That looked a little difficult to me from my vantage point scouting so this time I followed Brian down the right and basically had a great line although I was fairly impressed with a couple of the drops and had to paddle hard to avoid a boulder on river right.

Next came a key way point: the beginning of the Olympic Section. I had always previously taken out just before this section so this was where the newness began. We ran the first drop on the left, following a very dramatic curler that basically drives you into the huge eddy on river left. We got out to scout and walked down the paved path to look at each drop in turn.

The first segment is fast moving class II and doesn't look too bad. It does culminate in a small ledge with a hole. After this things start to get a bit more pushy and technical. The major areas of concern on the Olympic Section are Callahan's Ledge and Humongous. Kenny and Brian decided that it would be best to eddy hop down the left side all the way and they placed special emphasis on how to run the approach to Callahan's and where to be when I got to the hole. After this we would avoid class IV Humongous by running through the chute on the left, which is probably still solid class III. In fact, the sequence from the approach to Callahan's and through the left side of Humongous probably could be considered a very long hard III or III+ sequence and the good lines are narrow.

When we finally got back to our boats, I heard that slight rushing noise in my ears that isn't really just the sound of whitewater that tells me that my blood pressure is going up. I also felt a little bit of a rush as the adrenaline kicked in. Your brain and your body will do funny things when that fight-or-flight instinct kicks in.

Fortunately my confidence has been high all year and I didn't let Fear take complete control of me, although I do think my technique experienced a little degradation, as sometimes happens when I get nervous. As I eddy hopped down the left side of the Olympic Section, I kept trying to paddle my creek boat like a playboat, trying to rotate the boat with the muscles of my torso to cross the eddy lines, rather than driving the boat across with a forward posture as I should have. This is one of the hazards of switching between play boats and creek boats, but it is also a side effect of getting a little too nervous.

I would say that I had a pretty good run through the Olympic Section. Some of the stuff in the approach to Callahan's was a little easier than it looked, but there was one area where it was necessary to dodge a hole to the left and then drive right to dodge a second rocky-looking hole to the left before lining up on a tongue and eddying out. I made the move alright but I did drop into a narrow but munchy-looking hole, fortunately without experiencing any negative fallout. It was the only glitch in an otherwise perfect run through the Olympic Section. We then dropped into the giant wave train below the bridge. Big water is good!

We eddied out on river right to talk about what had just happened and what was to come: class IV Roach Motel. Kenny and Brian debated back and forth about which line to take. Kenny said that eddy hopping down the left was easier but that he was only about 90% sure he could find the line. Brian said he has always taken the line down the right that involves maneuvering through a field of offset holes at high speed. Finally they decided Kenny should lead me down the left and he discussed what it would be like.

As we approached Roach Motel, I closed up a bit on Kenny because I had scouted the rapid before and knew that it was complex. When following, you don't want to be so close that you run into your guide, but you also don't want to fall back so far that you can't see exactly what he has done. In the approach, I noticed that the rapid actually doesn't drop very much vertically, it's merely a constriction with a small series of ledges that host really big holes. In some ways this lack of gradient constricts visibility. On the one hand there is no blind horizon line, on the other hand, from upstream a pour-over often just looks like another wave.

Kenny hit the first eddy cleanly and I followed successfully. This process continued on down the rapid. At some point I stopped to look over at the giant holes in the rapid and I have to say I was again impressed. I definitely wouldn't care to try to punch some of those holes.

We continued eddy hopping and everything went well until we came up on a ledge that drops maybe 3 feet or so up against the left bank. Kenny had warned me about running it too far left and recommended fading over to the middle a couple of feet, but when I saw him drop over the ledge ahead of me, his boat went vertical and he had to roll up. "Well," I thought, "maybe I should go hard left after all." I paddled hard at the ledge a couple of feet to the left of where Kenny had gone over and boofed perfectly into the eddy, smacking my hull flat and whipping around. Brian followed my line. We had no further problems running out through the rest of the rapid.

After this there is a stretch of high quality class II and the road continues to be invisible for a little while until you approach the powerhouse. Just below the powerhouse is a ledge called "Edge of the World," notable for having been the site of another drowning in the past. It's an artificial ledge that drops four or five feet and has some pour-overs that are well known to be very retentive. I followed Kenny down a curler onto an autoboof lip that drops you into an eddy. Again I was satisfied by the sound of my hull slapping flat onto the water at the bottom. This is followed by a very strange ferry where the water coming off the ledge drives straight into the rock-lined river bank for 50 feet or so. Then you pull into an obviously artificial class I channel that makes you think you are paddling through one of those amusement park rides where you ride a boat through a channel and look at stuff.

Shortly after this you go through some easy rapids and end up in the lake that divides the Upper Ocoee from the Middle Ocoee. I was relieved to have made it and happy that I had a "dry hair day."

I think the Upper Ocoee is only slightly more difficult than the Middle but probably a LOT more dangerous.

As far as the technicality of paddling the Upper: with regard to the Olympic Section, Blue Hole, and Roach Motel, I would say that the lines are bit smaller and the consequences of missing a line a little greater on the Upper. Also the Olympic Section is unduly pushy, which I think may be a consequence of the artificiality of the course. Even the easy parts are VERY fast.

As for the run being dangerous, this is especially true in the first two wilderness miles where there are lots of trees growing in the riverbed, and numerous rock piles that have current flowing into them. There are also plenty of pinning opportunities, here, there and everywhere.  And of course there is also the possibility of a very long and dangerous swim in the Olympic Section. I don't even want to think about what you go through if you swim above Callahan's. Combine all this with plenty of giant retentive holes and the ever-present but usually invisible potholes in the river bed and you get danger.

But did I like it? Of course! I particularly enjoyed the first two miles, where the Ocoee runs away from the noise and tourists of the highway, and you get a true wilderness experience. As a bonus, because we were paddling on an unscheduled release, we saw only about 4 or 5 other boats all day, and NO RAFTS. Add a blue sky and unseasonably warm temperatures into the mix, and you've got a great trip.