TN/NC rafting

“I'm organizing 3 rafting trips for my church this summer. Originally, it was going to be a youth trip, but there was so much response from the adults that we just have to put an adult trip together too. It's the adult trip I need help with. I'm thinking of a moderate type of rafting trip. Is there anything close to the Highlands or Pisgah, NC areas?

The only reason I mention these areas is that on the way home we could stop in the Dillard House for lunch on Sunday. It's in Dillard GA and is fantastic.

The youth trips will be a single day float of the Cahaba which is close to B'ham. This will be an early summer trip. Late summer we'll do an overnight trip up to the Ocoee.”

“I've eaten there for the breakfast.
Yum!!!”

“Check out Nantahala Outdoor Center in western NC - right out of Andrews NC (close to Franklin).

They do several trips on the Nantahala River and have a pretty good reputation.”

“Thanks, I'd forgotten they have one close to Franklin. I recalled the one at Wesser, but didn't want to got that far west. I'll check out the other one.”

“Turns out the NOC has an option for 2 nights at Lake Junaluska, food, and rafting for $100 a head. That might be our winner.”

“Nantahala OC is good. HPM and all his scouts have been to the Dillard house. Even the bottomless pits in the troop were appeased.”

“Hey if you come through Chattanooga and into Murphy (past the Ocoee) Wesser is closer than Franklin. That's all 4 lane until you get past Andrews, but then Wesser is just up the road a few miles at that point.”

“I'll check into that. It takes me about 4 hr maybe to get to Franklin. It takes me about 4 or so to get to Cades Cove. Now that you mention it Wesser is probably about the same for me.”

“Plan on a little over an hour (i think) to get from Chattanooga to Murphy and then prolly another 30 minutes into Wesser.”

“I went and looked up the name of the town I was thinking of when I said Pisgah. It's actually Brevard. Do you know of any rafting there or around Highlands? I haven't turned up much as of yet.

Currently I'm looking at 3 options:
1. Single day Ocoee trip (it's 2 hr to Chattanooga for me)
2. Single overnight to the Chattooga River in GA. We'll hit Dillard House for one meal. This is under 4 hrs for me.
3. Lake Junaluska trip for 2 nights. This is maybe 5 hrs for me.”

“Brevard is close to the Boy Scout Camp for that area, Daniel Boone. I remember that a lot of troops would go rafting, but they would go to Wesser and use NOC.

Seems like there ought to be something out of Waynesville (just north of Brevard) that would have something, but I don't know of any off the top of my head. There is a nice river there, runs right alongside the highway - I'll remember the name of it sometime tonight.”

“The Nolichucky is fun and so is the Ocoee. The Chatooga is great, but you better do the easier section with a church group.”

“We're staying at Dillard House for our Chattooga trip in May. I'm taking Denise down section 3. This will be my second trip down 3. I've done section 4 five times. Except for the time we stayed at the rafting center, We've always stayed at Dillard House.

Section 3 would be better for a group. Unless that group is a bunch of gung-ho types, then section 4 is a bit hairier.”

“Good food at the Dillard House.
We took a bunch of Scouts to eat there during summer camp a couple of times.

The guys wore out the servers.”

“Right now it's looking like Lake Junaluska might win out. This would put us on the Nantahala. I hear it's pretty tame. We're having a meeting about it next Thur. If it's a retreat with rafting then we'll likely do Junaluska. If we're doing a rafting trip with a bit of retreat then Chattooga or Ocoee will win out. I'm 3 hrs from Ocoee, 4 max from Chattooga and 5 from Junaluska. Oh yeah, I'm 4 yrs from the Gulf Coast. This is a pretty good place to vacation from!”