A primrose by a river's brim, it's Monday Mail.

Whitewater, white death

Today we consider comments posted to a story I wrote about river safety and whitewater rafting. Here's one from Diver00:

As long as water is around, people will continue to drown. People will continue to overestimate their abilities. All you can do is educate and hope people don't make stupid decisions. That being said, I'm excited to try out the whitewater course. It will be a great way to get out and about and enjoy our long summer and fall (since most of the time we skip a harsh winter).

Dear Diver00:

The way our summers are going, winter may be the only time it's not too hot to go rafting.

"BLACKLABS" posted:

I don't intend to raft, but if you feel it's not safe enough for you, keep your butt out of it. I still have to drive the J R Allen Speedway, that's thrill enough for me.

Dear Blacklabs:

No kidding. Do you know how much more likely you are to be killed on the J.R. Allen Parkway?

Me neither. But I bet it's a lot more.

GRINGO posted:

I just came back from a rafting trip on the Ocoee. It was great. There were hundreds of people on the river that one day. Columbus has more to offer than McCraysville and we need to take advantage of that fact. We have a downtown that caters to the type of people looking for a controlled adventure like whitewater. We have the Riverwalk for biking, Pine Mountain trail for hiking, etc. If Columbus can package it all together, folks can stay a day or two in the area versus driving down for the day. The journey needs to start upriver of the whitewater course and travel downstream past the course for a bit to make a half-day trip maybe with a picnic lunch at Uchee Creek or just behind the Civic Center. Folks can then go to the Naval Museum and learn about the river. There needs to be a story behind the river to make it fun. Ocoee has the James Dickey/Deliverance and TVA theme. We can have the Civil War/Appalachacola theme. By the way, two of the ladies that were in my raft up at the Ocoee came up from Jacksonville, Fla., just the have fun.

Dear Gringo:

"Deliverance" was a lot of fun, wasn't it?

"N2tvnews" wrote:

Why would anyone want to even go in the Chattahoochee? Driving over the bridge is the closest I want to come to it.

Dear n2tvnews:

Do you know how much more likely you are to be killed driving across the bridge than whitewater rafting on the river?

Me neither.

Tim Chitwood, tchitwood@ledger-enquirer.com, 706-571-8508.