No dueling banjos

Or toothless hillbillies on the Chattooga (Sha-too-ga) River.

I chose to go with Wildwater Ltd. outfitters based on the recommendation of the marketing vice president who noticed this blog. They were great. They are located in Longcreek, S.C. on Academy Road and their offices and raft guide lodging is housed in what used to be the Long Creek Academy which started in 1914 (the trip leader got the facts a little confused) and closed in 1956.

The Academy was organized by the Beaverdam Baptist Association to educate in a Christian manner the boys and girls of the northwestern rural area of South Carolina’s mountain section according to the National Register. We were told that (former US Senator) Strom Thurmond attended the academy and lived upstairs in the building where we checked in,  “The Brown Building.” I fact checked this with Clemson University which could not verify the statement, but the folklore was interesting nonetheless.

We boarded our bus, and after a relatively short ride were tasked to carry our rafts to the river. It was amazing. The river is beautiful and our guide informed us that it is protected along a 15,432-acre corridor as a national Wild and Scenic River where 39.8 miles of the river have been designated “wild”, about 2.5 miles “scenic,” and 14.6 miles “recreational” for a total of about 57 miles.

Perhaps the river is best known as a setting for the fictional “Cahulawassee River” in the film Deliverance. However, it should be best known for its whitewater experience and the fact that it is well-preserved and has maintained its natural beauty.

Unlike many other whitewater rivers, the Chattooga is controlled so that you don’t have multiple outfitter companies crowding your experience. We were the only outfitters on the river as it is controlled so your experience is unique according to our guide.

I was warned ahead of time that the river was low. It was. I don’t regret going because we still had a blast. But, it may have been a bit smoother if there were a little more volume on the river. There were at least a couple runs that we didn’t get caught on a rock, but not many.

The fact that I was teamed up with three members of the Glencoe High School football team from Alabama may not have helped our guide. I figured that the weight in our boat in people mass alone was close to 600 lbs.  A great group of young men, however,  with an outstanding leader as coach. Glencoe Head Coach Lee Ozmint does a great job of combining leadership and establishing a positive and professional rapport with his players. He was using this trip as a team building experience for the team. It worked. Hard to go wrong with whitewater rafting to help a team work better together and then have stories to tell long after the trip has ended.

Wildwater allowed us to stop and do some extras on the river, we viewed a waterfall, dove through an underwater cave that exited us through a waterfall, along with two boulders that we jumped off. We had some time to swim along the way. And who could forget our guide pointing out where the infamous “love scene” was filmed in Deliverance. Who could ask for anything more?