Outfitters Store and our 30th Anniversary

Rafting in the Smokies presents:

in conjunction with our 30^th Anniversary…

our new Pigeon River Outfitters Store

Are you interested in paddling rivers with more independence or possibly getting into whitewater kayaking?

We offer a number of new tours, trips and instruction in an effort to cater more appropriately to your needs.

Our location serves as the staging area for two different river trips. The Upper section of the Pigeon River starts at the Walters Hydroelectric Power plant. It’s located right by the Big Creek area of the Smoky Mountains National Park. This section of river is the most commonly rafted part and consists mostly of class III (intermediate) whitewater and flows past the Smoky Mountains National Park, Cherokee National Forest, Martha Sundquist State Forest and the Appalachian Trial. Your trip will end at our river outpost.

The best way to start down the path of independence would be to paddle a ducky (single person inflatable kayak) down the Lower section of the Pigeon River. This section starts at our store and you will be picked up 6 miles downstream.

There are a couple of ways you can do this trip. If you elect to go with a rafting trip, you’ll be paddling with a group of fully guided rafts.

The second ducky option is to do an instructional session. This is a great way to learn a lot of basics of kayaking strokes, reading water (hydrology), safety and more in the comfort of an inflatable.

If you’re already comfortable in this sort of environment and would like to jump right into learning how to kayak we have a number of options for you.

A two hour roll clinic will equip you with the knowledge of an “Eskimo” roll and more.

A half day skills workshop will be on scheduled dates with a group of people. If you have a group and would like to do this we can schedule a special session for you.

Private instruction is also available on a half day or a full day basis.

We're now offering a deluxe fishing trip with a local fisherman on this trophy small mouth river.

Rafting in the Smokies is conveniently located right off of Interstate 40, exit 447 on the Pigeon River in Hartford, TN. From our location you have immediate access to great food, gas and lodging (we recommend camping or a cozy cabin).

We feature technical gear from Immersion Research, NRS, Astral Buoyancy, Werner, WRSI and kayaks from Pyranha and Jackson.

Guides, gear, trips and more

There's a lot happening at Rafting in the Smokies these days. We're hard at work on making sure all the pieces are in place for a great year. If you're in college be on the lookout for us to visit your career fair. If you don't go to school in the area and are interested in a summer job guiding, working in our store, at our call center, in the photo department, driving buses, or selling kayaking gear and teaching lessons, please e-mail our general manager at claudette@raftinginthesmokies.com or call 800-776-7238.

We will start taking trips on the first of March, unless there is enough demand earlier. The lake is full of water again, and we have had enough rain recently that the river has been running almost every day.

This spring we'll be bringing a lot more technical gear into our store. You'll probably see something new every week until our paddling shop has its grand opening the weekend after Memorial Day, May 31st. With the opening of our shop we will also be offering private paddling lessons in order to give our customers instruction on how to use their new products.

Drought and next year

One of the drawbacks to making a living working on a river is that we have no control over how much it rains. This past season Rafting in the Smokies has seen a lot of positive growth for the company. The excitement of this success was quickly followed by the harsh reality of the severity of the drought we're in. One of our bus drivers, named Art, has been living in this region all of his life. He's now in his 70s and recently told us that he doesn't ever remember it being as dry as it is right now. That being said we haven't been able to take anyone rafting since September 1st. We still have a couple of people in the office, so if it rains a lot please give us a call to see if the hydroelectric power company that gives us water will release. The lake has been about -13 feet or lower for months now so we'll need a lot of rain to bring the lake level up enough for them to give us water.

The upside to the drought is that we were able to get started on plans for next year a lot sooner than normal. Some of the things that we had planned to roll out next year may be put on hold for awhile due to our current situation. We will still be opening a brand new outfitters store on the Pigeon river next spring! Our grand opening will be announced in the spring, so please come out and see what we have to offer. We're also had at work on a number of behind the scenes things that will help us serve you better. We will also be offering kayaking lessons next year in addition to a few other services that will be announced soon.

New IR Gear

We've had a great season so far. It's hard to believe that people are headed back to school already. As sad as we are to see summer slip away from us, with the season wrapping up we will be able to focus more energy on the future. We're still hard at work on a fully updated online presence with a new website, online store, and photos of your trips.

You can see the fledgling stages of our kayaking shop next to our outpost in Hartford. It's currently only a pavilion but we'll be closing it in this winter. We're proud to announce the first move towards catering to your needs with a boating specific line called IR (Immersion Research). The addition of this line will provide our rafting customers with a high quality choice for apparel to wear on the water and will offer a wide variety of kayaking specific products as well.

Also if you haven't checked out our new myspace page please check it out at http://www.myspace.com/raftinginthesmokies

Welcome to the Rafting in the Smokies Revolution

Change is afoot here on Pigeon River. A little over a year ago a company called PRO (Pigeon River Outdoors) was bought by a couple named Mark and Brenda Shultz. At one point PRO had outposts on the Pigeon, Ocoee, Nantahala as well as a tubing office. When Mark and Brenda bought the company they chose to only purchase the Pigeon portion of the business. We also have two offices on 321 in Gatlinburg. The smaller one is downtown in between the Red Carpet Inn and Rainbow Inn and our reservation office is further out of town in Cosby.

The next phase of this company will be an exciting one. While we won't be offering trips on the Ocoee and Nantahala anymore we are looking at a lot of options to expand our services on the Pigeon. The bulk of this will be done on an island adjacent to our rafting outpost. These plans include expanded retail space offering boating, biking and hiking gear, mountain biking trails, expanded Wildwood Acres lodging options on the island (possibly in tree houses) and a whole lot more that hasn't been fleshed out quite as well.

With these new additions you will also see a drastically increased online presence. In the next year you will be able to book your trips online in real time, purchase your photos online and shop in our online outfitters store. In the coming weeks and months you will also see more and more of an effort to interact with you through various digital media outlets. We would love to show you the outdoors through our eyes and with new media we will be able to give you a better idea of just how beautiful the world around us is.

Change always comes at a price and we hope that any hick-ups that anyone may be privy to are simply viewed as such. We're working hard to bring you the highest quality services and staff to ensure that your time spent playing with us in the woods is the best possible. If you have any ideas, comments suggestions, or any other tidbits to pass along to us please feel free to get in touch with us at any time.

One of the major hurdles this business will be faced with is ensuring that the area around us is as environmentally sound as possible. We realize that everyone can be effected by the decisions of a few. There are two companies the Pigeon River community has been working with in the past to ensure proper management of this resource; Progress Energy and Blue Ridge Paper. The relationship with Progress Energy has drastically improved from the days which we didn't have any guaranteed release dates. While it has improved there is still room for experimentation, with the realization that expanded or adjusted release schedules will have a positive economic impact for Cock County as a whole. Ten years ago the state of TN sued the state of NC to force Blue Ridge Paper to comply with TN's water quality standards. Ten years later Blue Ridge Paper wants to get a variance so they are allowed to pollute at the old levels. While the Pigeon has seen a dramatic improvements in water quality over this time period it's no way near clean enough. Please help us keep the pressure on corporations and our government so that we can all continue to have fun playing in the outdoors!