Water Adventures That Make a Splash
Come summertime, Southern Appalachians take to water like salamanders to streams. Next time you’re looking for more than a lazy float down the river, leave the inner tube at home and give one of these unique local adventures a whirl.
All Access: Take Nature’s Course
On Lake Jocassee, not only can you swim in a waterfall, but you can also learn all about its geology and biology. Offering pontoon excursions with plenty of stops for swimming, Jocassee Lake Tours gives the only naturalist-led trips through this pristine wilderness in the northwest corner of Upstate South Carolina.
Brooks and Kay Wade launched their boat tour business in 2011, a couple of years after falling for Lake Jocassee on a trip to Devil’s Fork State Park, the gateway to Jocassee. After surviving dual health scares and a few Florida hurricanes, the couple had decided to hit the road in search of adventure. They had bought an Airstream trailer with plans to travel the country, then drove from Florida to Lake Jocassee—and never left.
“There’s an otherworldly physical beauty here, with a quality of light I’ve never seen anywhere,” Brooks explains. “It’s a mesmerizing place. From a botany and biology point of view, the diversity is unmatched.”
A special edition of National Geographic magazine recently named the Jocassee Gorges among “50 of the world’s last great places,” citing its 60 species of rare plants and high concentration of waterfalls.
Those natural wonders give the Wades—both lifelong “citizen naturalists” turned certified Upstate Master Naturalists—endless fodder for what Brooks calls “thinly veiled environmental education trips” of the “Yosemite Valley of the eastern United States.”
Jocassee Lake Tours offers half- and full-day tours on their handicap-accessible pontoon boats, which fit 12 to 15 passengers, as well as kayak and hiking rentals, shuttles, and guided trips. Lake tour rates begin at $250. jocasseelaketours.com.
Moderate: Hop On a Hydro-Bike
Here where the Tennessee Valley Authority built its first dam, in 1933, the glassy waters of Norris Lake provide 800 miles of shoreline and endless recreational opportunities.
The latest wave of adventure to hit this historic body of water? Imagine a bicycle built on a pontoon, and you’ve got a pretty good picture of a hydro-bike. Introduced to Norris Lake by John Marquis, owner of Norris Paddling Adventures, the pedal-powered water bikes use a propeller and impulsion system that can reach speeds of ten miles an hour and are virtually impossible to tip over.
“Many people have given up biking for several reasons—physical strain, fear of falling, or they feel the roads are not safe, to name a few. Hydro-bikes eliminate many of these obstacles,” says Marquis, a certified personal trainer and former Division 1 college athlete. When Marquis moved here a couple of years ago from Maine with his wife, a native of East Tennessee, he brought with him more than a decade of experience as a recreational wilderness guide.
In its first two years at the Norris Dam Marina, Norris Paddling Adventures has built a business on facilitating family fun as well as water fitness with hydro-bike, canoe, kayak, and stand-up paddleboard rentals. Special classes and events include stand-up paddleboard and yoga sessions held on summer weekends and evening hydro-bike tours during the full moon of each month (upcoming tours to be held August 28-30 and September 25-27). Rental rates range from $25-$35 for one hour to $75-$95 for a full day. norrispaddlingadventures.com.
Challenging: Try Canyoneering
Known as the Land of Waterfalls, North Carolina’s Transylvania County has plenty of opportunities to get wet. Lying in the French Broad River Valley and flanked by the high points of the Blue Ridge escarpment and the 6,000-foot Balsam Mountains, the southwest corner of North Carolina features dramatic changes in elevation that form gorges and ravines.
Pura Vida Adventures, an outfitter based on the edge of Pisgah National Forest, brings the burgeoning sport of canyoneering to the unique landscape. Popular in Europe and the slot canyons of Utah, canyoneering makes an adventure out of traversing natural gorges—whether by hopping between rocks, rappelling down cascades, or swimming through pools of water.
“Transylvania County’s elevation profile, as well as the fact that it gets more rain then anywhere east of the Rockies, provides for great canyoneering terrain,” explains Joe Moerschbaecher, owner and head guide of Pura Vida, which offers a variety of guided trips that range from three to nine hours and include technical instruction.
No prior experience is needed to tackle Cougar Canyon, with its 75-foot waterfall. Beginners negotiate boulders, sludge through waist-deep water, and follow trails along the waterway. For the full canyoneering experience, Pura Vida leads groups of physically fit thrill seekers into Paradise Canyon, where they rappel 125 feet along a waterfall, jump eight feet into a pool of water, swim 50 meters to Paradise Beach, and hike a long, steep trail back out of the canyon.
Canyoneering trips run from late March through early November; costs range from $150 to $225 per person, with the option to add on a brewery tour for $35. pvadventures.com.