Summary: We went to the Ocoee Whitewater Center.

Sunday, June 3rd (Warne, North Carolina-3rd night): Dana cooked popovers for breakfast and we had them with homegrown raspberries. Yummy!!!

Then Dana took us for a drive west along Hwy 64/74 to the Ocoee Whitewater Center in Tennessee (just across the border from North Carolina). This was a really interesting place. Carl watched the Canoe and Kayak Slalom competition in the 1996 Summer Olympics, but I didn't. This is the only Olympic Whitewater Site in the world located on a natural river. The lady at the Visitor Center told us that the river was cleared of the large boulders. They built a 1/10 scale model of the rapids down river several miles (we didn't see this, but it would have been really interesting). Then they put the boulders back in the river based on the models of the 4 or 5 rapids for the competition.

The water flow in this part of the river is totally dam controlled, so they didn't have to worry about the water flow while they were working on it. There are three dams. Water from the Ocoee 3 Dam flows down the natural riverbed (where the Olympics was held) or through a tunnel to the Ocoee 3 Powerhouse. Then the water goes to the Diversion Dam #2 and down the natural riverbed or through a flume (very old, but restored) to the Ocoee 2 Powerhouse. The water then flows into the Ocoee/Parksville Lake and into Ocoee 1 Powerhouse.

We took some pictures of the riverbed without water flow because the water from the Ocoee 3 Dam was being diverted through the tunnel the day we were there. There is a schedule published to let everyone know when the water will be flowing. This section of the river was the Upper Ocoee Olympic course.

Then we continued on down the road to Forest Road 77. The lady at the Visitor Center told us about this road that had great overlooks and a Historic Site. Polk County was one of the strongest Confederate counties in Tennessee and one of few in the union-dominated region of mountainous East Tennessee. The mountain highlanders of Polk County were very rebellious of "furriners" and strongly resented the hostile incursion of the homeland. The county also had one of the highest percentages of boys joining the Confederate States of America. South across the Ocoee River Gorge a regiment of deserted Confederate soldiers known as the "Hogback Regiment" terrorized the people of the local area and committed acts of thievery and murder on once neighbors. Most of them left the area upon pressure from Confederate troops and local residents, but a few were caught and hung. The penalties of deserting the Confederate Army included being hung or shot in the face. Guerilla warefare was evident ever during the Civil War and this region was no exception. General Gatewood plundered the region executing Union sympathizers and deserted Confederate soldiers. It was reported that General Gatewood murdered 24 people in the "Madden Branch Massacre" and did not practice civilized warfare.

Then we went back to Dana's house and Carl got some pictures of Dana in his workshop.

Dana called the Ocoee Adventure Center (OAC) and made reservations ($39/ea) to go whitewater rafting the next day!!! Dana signed us up for the Middle Ocoee trip. This is five miles of nearly continuous whitewater excitement!! Names of the rapids conjure up images of fun and real adventure--Grumpy, Double Trouble, Tablesaw, and the awesome Hell's Hole. The Upper Ocoee is the site of the 1996 Olympic Whitewater competition with solid Class III and IV whitewater. We had Class III and IV whitewater on the Middle Ocoee, but it wasn't as continuous as the Upper Ocoee. We were really looking forward to this trip!!!