4/1-4/3 Tellico/Ocoee Report

I like reading Will’s trip reports so I’ll try to do something similar.

This past weekend was a blast. Matt Bliss, Kelly Urbas, and I took off Thursday towards the Tellico driving through the rain hoping it would bring it up, but not where it was over our skill level. Matt got to the campground around 9pm I believe and Kelly and I got there around 3AM. Got up and it had peaked at 1100cfs and was dropping. We drove down the river as my eyes widened thinking it was too high for me. We decided to hop on the river and do the lower section at the bridge below Jereds knee with a local paddler and he showed us the lines. It was a lot of fun whatever level it was (probably 800-900). The ledges still looked too big for my liking so we did the lower one more time. After that, the ledges looked great, I think around 700cfs and we took off down that section. What a blast! Thanks to Levi from our February trip, Matt and I knew the lines and showed Kelly down the river. That was his first trip off any type of falls and loved it. Three runs in one day was exhausting. We then drove to the cabin 20+ miles away where we met up with Dustin, Justin, and Ross. http://www.lostcreekcabins.com/cabin3.html  You should’ve seen the climb up the hill in the SUV. Thats the steepest climb I’ve ever been in a vehicle. I slept so deep that night after a few hour sleep the night before and a long day paddling. We woke up with a great breakfast and headed back to the Tellico and took Ross and Dustin down the ledges for their pfd and had fun. There were a few swims but the weather was beautiful and the water was back to being crystal clear. Dustin hurt his injured shoulder so him, Ross, and Justin headed back to the cabin while Matt, Kelly, and I did the ledges one more time. Then we headed back to the cabin again, made a great supper and had some good laughs. We woke up Sunday, got all packed up and headed to the Ocoee and Kelly, Matt, and I got on the river at 10am. We had a good time with no flips or swims and couldn’t have asked for better weather. I love feeling more confident in something other than the Saint. I didn’t flip or swim all weekend and I helped show the lines instead of following a leader like the times before out East.

We took off after the Ocoee and I got home around 9pm Sunday. Now I’m just sitting here at work being exhausted but it was totally worth it. Now its countdown time to the Memorial Day trip to NC. Can’t wait.