June 2, 2006

By Lauren Burress. Learn more about Lauren.

On Saturday our day started out with a warm up run on the Tellico at 2.4 ft. We met Boyd Ruppelt and Sam Brunner for an awesome paddle from the ledges on down to the bridge. Sam was paddling her new pink Hero and I was in my pink Fun 1. It was alot of fun but the real fun started when we got to the Cheoah River. This would be me and Dad's first trip down and we were excited. Boyd and Dad discussed and scouted the big 3 rapids and they both decided to have me walk Bear Creek Falls on this trip. Maybe I will run it next time.

My favorite rapid on the Cheoah was The Land of Holes, it was fun surfing and punching through all of the different sized holes. My second favorite rapid was Gods Dam because it was a boof. I took out before Bears Creek and walked around it and put back in to run the rest of the river to the take out. It was a different experience for me. The water on the Cheoah is continuously moving. I thought it was more of a challenge than the Ocoee but technical like the Tellico.

It was a great day on both rivers and I can't wait to run the Cheoah again.

Lauren Burress