White Water Rafting On the Ocoee River

Oh what a weekend of fun !!!!!! The Places I WILL GO (sit) to get a PICTURE…….Up front with my phone in a waterproof case hoping for the best. #oaklandstudents

TIME TO GO……

The Oakland Baptist Youth trip to the Ocoee River in Tennessee began on Friday, August 5th. Our original goal was to leave as soon after 4:00 as possible. We laughed as our last passenger (a teacher after her first week of school) arrived at 4:35. Everyone was just CHILLING in the NEW church bus enjoying the cool air. Brother Brad was asked about 4 times on this trip to turn the air down due to everyone being COLD. This is the complete opposite of all previous trips on the older bus. (Stories for another day)

CHICK-FIL-A & PHOTO BOMBERS

The bus rolled out of the church parking lot at 4:45 and arrived at the Parkway Place Mall in Huntsville Alabama at 6:50. Not sure if it’s a thing for Brother Brad or not but he dropped us at the Belk entrance and we walked to the food court in search of Chick-Fil-A. (This is a repeat of another trip). I personally think he is a secret shopper.

NEW BUS

It took about an hour for us to eat, and get ready to load back up. The new bus is also equipped with screens and a DVD player. Open Season for the win as we headed to the hotel. The ride was a little over 2 hours but we lost an hour as we changed time zones. We arrived in Cleveland and got into our rooms by 11:30.

PREPPING FOR THE DAY…Hair!

Everyone in my room went with braids for the day. Waking up to get braids took a few minutes since they giggled and laughed past midnight. Who knows how long, since once I get horizontal I usually go to sleep (AND I DID). Glad I had a great group of young ladies!!!!!!

BREAKFAST THEN WE WERE OFF

We ate breakfast at the hotel and headed out at 8:00. I’m not much of a morning person, sorry…..

NOC River Rafting

Nantahala Outdoor Center is the company that OBC uses when white water rafting. They have you sit through a safety lesson before loading the school bus and heading to the drop off point about 20 minutes away.

PRACTICE MAKES…

We had to sit on the bus while the rafts were being unloaded from the top of the bus. After we unloaded be divided into our rafting group of 6 and met with our guide. My group was with Cal. He taught us what all his commands meant and had us practice them while we were still on land.

RANDOM PICTURES

I borrowed a waterproof case for my phone so that I could take pictures. It took some practice and I can’t even begin to tell you how many random pictures I had to delete at the end of the day. Sometimes I just pointed and clicked, or thought I did anyway.

MAN OVERBOARD

The guides would tell us the name of each rapid that we would go through but I CANNOT remember which ones were which or even identify them in the pictures. I do know that this is the one where one of our group fell out. They threw him a rope and pulled him to the side. Some of the group stopped to make sure he was ok.

LAZY RIVER FLOATING

At 12:00 we had reached an area of slower moving water. Most of the kids jumped in and floated down to where we were going to eat lunch. After I took a few pictures, I too joined the floaters. The water felt so good.

CHANGING WATER LEVELS

The upper portion of the journey does not always have a high level of water running down. They open the dam and let water run only on the weekends so that people can raft. On the bus ride to the starting point, we could see the river bed and it looked like the picture in the middle. By the time we arrived at the drop off, the water was running at full speed. It would have been amazing to watch it rise. The third picture shows how high the water was, ABOVE some of the bushes and grass that grow in the riverbed when the water is down.

LUNCH ON THE RIVER

Sandwich materials, fruit, chips, veggies, gatorade and water were provided for lunch. We may not have looked picture ready but we were definitely food ready. All that paddling will wear you out and we were almost half-way at this point.

MOVING RAFT FOR THE FINAL RIDE

After lunch, we just floated down a bit to a spot that we all had to get out and carry out boat to the bottom of the dam. It is dangerous and illegal to try and go over. When some of the guys on my raft asked about going over, Cal told them that as soon as they were released from the hospital they would be charged.

CHECK OUT THE FACES

GREAT PHOTOS BY NOC

NOC had people located at the rapids to take pictures. There are some really FANTASTIC pictures. You have to talk to the people in each boat to get THEIR version of what happened.

MY RAFT ADVENTURES

NEXT RAPID

NEXT ADVENTURE

MOVING TO THE FRONT

I moved to the front and sat in the bottom of the boat for the last rapids. I am the little pink spot that you can see sometimes. The rest of the time I am holding my breath or drinking water up my nose. I’m posting the videos I was able to get on my FB page Adventures of the MTNESTRS. Link at the top of the blog home page.

OTHER RAFTS

Someone bought these pictures. I couldn’t find the vertical picture’s owner for publishing rights.

END OF THE TRIP

These are a few random pictures I took a the end of the trip. After changing and heading out, we only stopped once for fuel and snacks. It was a quiet & rainy trip home. The bus arrived back at Oakland around 7:30 pm.

FANTASTIC TRIP… I can’t wait until we go again. Maybe I will sit in the front next year!!! Maybe I can talk Travis into going???????? Nope (TS)