A news source out of Tennessee reports that whitewater rafting in the drought stricken region has not hurt the whitewater rafting industry this season. Many around the nations have heard about the drought in the South-East corner of the U.S. this summer, and normally this means bad news for the rafting outfitters.
However, many don't realize that a lot of the rivers in the regions are now dam controlled, with mandatory release dates and steady water levels. Like many other states and counties across the region, rafting and recreational outfitters have worked together with park services and governments to have a constant flow of water the whole season with release dates and minimum cfs flows.
The numbers from the Tennessee report give stats on the Ocoee River, which is one of the dam controlled rivers in the area. You would not expect there to be much variance there. The Chattooga River, however, has suffered a bit from the drought, and water levels are extremely low. So low that some outfitters are trying to steer customers towards other rivers just to maintain a fun experience.
The notable dam controlled rivers with whitewater rafting in the region that will maintain good water levels include: Ocoee River, Nantahala River, and Cheoh river, all of which are great river for short day trips.
4 comments:
Very interesting read, you should keep posting. I know in the NC/SC region we have had no rain. They opened up that new National Whitewater RAfting center in Charlotte though, so there has been no lack of rafting for me.
Be sure to check out my new rafting site for West Virginia.
http://westvirginiarafting.net/
naturally i am willing to trade links for the blogging community.
thanks for both of your comments.
Nice blog. please keep on writing blogs. You are doing very well.
White Water Rafting
The Ocoee River as most of you know is dam controlled, so there is never a question of whether we will have a "good water season" or not. This means we don't have anyone ever think, I wonder if this will be a good year to go rafting. It is always a good year. The past couple of years have been climbing back to the pre- 9/11 years. It looks like 2011 will break this record.
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