Ocoee Drawdown 2023
| River: | Ocoee |
| Skill: | Intermediate |
| Trip Date: | 09/22/2023 |
Well, that’s another Ocoee Drawdown on the books.
The Middle Ocoee is a Class III/III+ river with 20+ named rapids packed almost back-to-back for five miles. What’s Ocoee Drawdown (also referred to as “Secret Week”)? The last week of September the Middle Ocoee runs throughout the week. Drawdown used to be TVA’s drawing down the lake to check the flume lines and prepare for winter rains, but as I understand it that’s mostly solved by technology today. But that week is still on the Ocoee release schedule. During Drawdown, raft traffic is typically light to non-existent, to the point you can sometimes paddle the entire Ocoee without seeing a raft). A group of like-minded paddlers gather at Thunder Rock Campground to run the Ocoee one (or more!) times every day for up to 9 days. We roll out of camp at 10:00 am (as the water turns on), set shuttle, run the Ocoee until we’re tired of it or run out of water, head back to camp, clean up, and then head out to dinner or cook in camp. Then a quiet evening of sitting around a fire talking about rocks and water as the evening settles in.
Herb’s Barbecue has been the historical go to for dinner. With the recent closure of Herb’s Barbecue, we adopted the new State Line Barbecue in Copper Hill / McCayesville. While the restaurant is somewhat lacking in ambiance, it’s made up for with the friendly staff, great service, and spectacular food.
Paddling: All told in the 9 days we had 20 separate trips down the Ocoee with 106 person/trips (one person running the river one time, on one day, would be one person-trip). This year we had 22 paddlers from as far away as Florida and Ohio, with many returning from previous years: Rick, Jim, Brett, Chris, Pam, Henry (PFD), Gene, Les, Brian, Lisa, Rich, Charlie (PFD), Troy, DaveC, Alton (PFD), Jack (PFD), Josh, Kathy, Steve, Matt (PFD), DaveJ, and Anna (apologies if I missed someone). On the peak trip we had 12 paddlers, but most days we had at least 10 for the first trip down, and 3-7 for the second. Experience levels ranged from PFDs (and/or people with only a couple of runs) to those who drove down to the Ocoee after a weekend on the Lower Gauley. To Charlie, who was kind of a league of his own.
With 106 descents, we had the usual roll here or there, but only a little carnage (none severe). Entrance rapid is well known for extended (and violent) swims. Most days all (or the majority) launched from “The Rails”, the old raft launch spot, avoiding much of the peril from (an drama of) Entrance. That said, we still had one swim through the entirety of Entrance by one of the experienced paddlers. Not fun. Slice n’ Dice took a solid lead in injuries, though only scrapes and bruises. Double Trouble was clearly the spot that flipped the most paddlers (it’s certainly my most flipped spot on the Ocoee ). If I recall correctly we had many rolls but only one swim at Tablesaw, and managed the boat recovery before Diamond Splitter. We had two separate (minor) forehead injuries along the edge of the helmet.
There were reports of me play boating in the ferry of “Walk the Plank” (an Ocoee “stupid kayaker” trick at Gonzo Shoals), although me getting trapped in the hole for an extended surf, flipping over, having my paddle blade trapped in rocks when attempting to roll, not being willing to let go until I finally got it free, and then sliding over the ledge on my shoulder might be more accurate. So yeah, play boating 🙂 The disadvantage of knowing the Ocoee fairly well is knowing exactly what’s about to happen to you next!
We had not one but two broken paddles. Jim’s snapped somewhat at random just above Broken Nose with predictable results, although his self-rescue was nothing short of spectacular. Rich’s paddle snapped in Powerhouse, granting him a quiet relaxing swim down to Commercial to pull off.
Weather: The weather for Drawdown is typically great, and this year was no exception. If I could have picked exactly the weather I wanted, I could not have done a better job. The days were in the mid-80s, with the nights in the high 50s to low 60s. We had only one night of (light) rain, that started just as night settled in.
Camping: Thunder Rock is one of my favorite campgrounds. Only a couple of minutes from the put-in by car (or 15 minutes by paddle). Most everyone camped on sites located around the group site. A new quirk to Thunder Rock was a hot water schedule where the hot water in the showers was unavailable from 4pm-5pm and 10pm-11pm. From speaking with the camp host, it had to do with a water quality problem and chlorination with them flushing the system. Weird.
MVP: DaveC. Dave was always there, whether it was a breakdown paddle for Jim when his paddle snapped in two, someone needing to be towed through Powerhouse, a boat rescue, or helping drain the water from a boat.
Honorable mention to Amy and Linda, who helped us set shuttle in the mornings. You can fit 7 paddlers in with Amy if you put two of them in the trunk!
Memories:
- Looking back to see Brett (or Chris) as sweep to know we had everyone
- Jack’s face when he came through Tablesaw for the first time
- Pam (mostly) making the “Hairy Ferry” above (or in, depending on your perspective) Double Suck
- Seeing the boat pulled up on shore after a successful rescue from Tablesaw
- Matt’s somewhat unintentional (and somewhat unexpected) rescue of Lisa in Slice n’ Dice
- Us not losing Gene’s boat for 2 miles this time
- Brett’s popcorn in the evening
- Linda and Kathy’s Shredder dropping into the perfect line through Double Suck
- DaveJ’s easy grace surfing Hell Hole (and slightly less elsewhere)
- Paddling above Accelerator with the vista a cascade of leaves drifting across the group.
- Jim, our fire master, with his words of wisdom as he headed to bed: “Just put more wood on the fire.”