Venture Out journeys to ride Ocoee River rapids

College group Venture Out set out on their first excursion of the Fall semester. The group, made up of two instructors and six students, departed for their adventure from East Campus. Their final destination: Ocoee, Tenn.

Graduate student Sarah Canatsey led the group. Canatsey is in the outdoor education administration program. Each Venture Out trip is led by one of the graduate students involved in the program.

On their way to Tennessee, the group stopped at Neels Gap for dinner.

“Neels Gap is basically the first place with civilization after getting on the Appalachian Trail,” Canatsey said. “It’s a really cool place.”

The group set up camp at Thunder Rock campgrounds in Polk County, Tenn., where the six students were taught some tricks of the camping trade.

“They learned a bunch about camping,” Canatsey said. “We gave them some tips. It was really fun.”

The group even learned how to cook homemade bread over a campfire.

The group left for the Ocoee River, the nation’s most popular whitewater run, on Saturday. The group rafted the middle river section which is a five mile stretch of whitewater, including class three and four rapids. Class six is the highest and is too dangerous for rafting.

“It was a blast,” Canatsey said. “The students we took were so excited. A couple of kids had never been rafting so it was really fun to watch them.”

After rafting, the group finished out the night playing different kinds of card games.

“We were going to go on a hike, but rafting wore a lot of the group out, so we ended up playing games all night,” Canatsey said.

The whitewater rafting trip cost each student $115. This payment included the rafting, necessary gear, all of their meals and camping as well as transportation.

Macie Holstein, a freshman community health major, loved her experience on the Venture Out expedition.

“It was my first time with Venture Out and I had so much fun,” Holstein said. “It was very well planned out. It went very smoothly. It was really fun and I learned a lot of new camping tips.”

The group returned back to Milledgeville on the early afternoon of Sunday, Sept. 18.

The next exploration Venture Out has planned is a backpacking trip, hiking the Coosa Trail through Vogel State Park near Blairsville, Ga. The trip will take place Oct. 14-16. The pre-trip meeting is Oct. 5 at 5 p.m. in the Health Science Building third floor lobby. Throughout the semester, Venture Out is also going on multiple backpacking and rock climbing excursions.

For more information on important dates and details about Venture Out, visit their website at http://www.gcsu.edu/outdoor/ventureout.htm. Venture Out also their own Facebook group, GC Venture Out, where members can say updated with all of the most recent announcements and news going on in Venture Out.

Posted by SabrinaChandler on Sep 22 2011. Filed under Recreation, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.