Ski Southeast Messageboard

this is a delayer TR from 8/31/13

Well since the weather sucks for skiing and it's been warm and rainy it seems like a good time for another kayaking TR since there aren't any ski TR's to speak of. This is from the Cheoah river west of Robbinsville, NC. It's real close to TN along hwy 129. The cheoah Dam (maybe calderwood dam?) is the Dam that Harrison Ford jumped off to escape Tommy Lee Jones in THE FUGITIVE. It is seen from the bottom of the run. Cheoah is a great 9 mile long roadside run with very good continuous rapids. It's a grade harder than Ocoee with several solid class 4's. It's dam controlled and is released about 18 times a year. Sometimes it runs after a big rain.



Our group of 7 was mostly all UGA students, and 5 of them were first timers and we had no swims! We did 1 full length lap and then a 2nd lap of the lower section where most of the good rapids are.







Cheoah







Walker at Bear creek







Loading up for the boof!









William's first time. He went into the seam and disappeared















Brooke's first time too! She was a little surprised to see the ledge between drops because Cas told her "after the triangle rock theres a nice little pool and then another 6-7' drop". Wasn't quite what she was expecting







Jeff's first time







Cas

Nice setup for the freewheel in the last shot. Cheryl takes some good pics.

Looked like a good time was had by all. I need to get me another play boat

It's been several years since I have been on whitewater and it's hard for me

To justify the boat when the closest place to me is locust fork near cullman al

Biggest thing is

Talking the wife into another toy.

yea the commute can be a pain unless you're like Teledave he can pretty much jog for 15 minutes and be at one of 6 put-ins . It's good to have something besides skiing to keep the winter good. the last few days have been terrible for skiing, but for paddling it's great.

TD if you can get first timers thru stuff like that I want to meet up with you out there sometime, I really need an all weather sport, did everyone have their own set-up?

David, I'm pretty sure what he meant was the were Cheoah 1st timers, not 1st time kayakers. Class II is usually about all a 1st timer wants, and while it looks tame from the roadside it's pretty darn scary if you are the 1st timer.

@davidski 294362 wrote:TD if you can get first timers thru stuff like that I want to meet up with you out there sometime, I really need an all weather sport, did everyone have their own set-up?





They were cheoah first timers. This day and age you could probably get sued for taking a never-ever down the Cheoah! paddling feels very strange and counter intuitive the first number of times you go. It's tipsy as hell and real easy to flip over. Gotta start with class 2 like TD said then work up. There's a helluva lot of difference between pattons run on nanty (class 2) and bear creek falls or west prong on cheoah

@teledave 294363 wrote:David, I'm pretty sure what he meant was the were Cheoah 1st timers, not 1st time kayakers. Class II is usually about all a 1st timer wants, and while it looks tame from the roadside it's pretty darn scary if you are the 1st timer.



Any clubs that will teach the family to paddle in our area? Kids are 13 now, thought it could be time for another sport this summer. What's the best place for beginners around us?

Your family is big enough to be it's own club!