Speleoboatin' in the Obey River Gorge(ous)

[boreholio]

Brad Neff, Thany Mann and I took advantage of monsoon season last week to get in a rare late summer float down the middle section of the East Fork of the Obey River gorge in Tennessee Sunday. Blue skies, 75 degree air, 60 degree water and estimated 4 to 5000 cfs flow made for great conditions. At this level it's a pushy class II+ float with almost continuous rapids through a wilderness setting.

We put in at Hwy 85 and took out at Boatland about 10 miles downstream. Took us about 5 hours with plenty of goofing off.

The Lott Dean entrance to Mountain's Eye was underwater and Dragon's Breath was raging.

Here's a link to some photos. If clicking on it doesn't work for you, try copying and pasting it into your browser.

http://picasaweb.google.com/cavitater/E ... ej8msrsCA#

[batrotter]

Looks like a nice ride!

[captnemo]

Looks like a fun trip- a few members of our grotto went down the american river this summer (class iv) no caves :( stopped and checked out an old mine shaft though, but was a good trip- I posted a video of our trip at
http://captnemo.smugmug.com/Other/video/CaptNemos-videos/4035406_6RePT#621775730_JqyRZ

[boreholio]

That slot run looks really neat. Is that a mine tunnel just beyond?

Gee, none of the raft trips I've been on ever had a fiddle player!

[captnemo]

Yes the "tunnel chute" or slot as you called it was dug by miners to divert the river through a tunnel in the hillside so they could mine in the old river bed. It really is a blast- you go shooting through, over the falls then drift into the tunnel, quite a different experience from the rest of the river. I added the music afterward, thought it made the video a little more interesting :)