Ahhh...more people posting...adding...good! Thanks, JohnB. I'm sure your photo collection and stories would dwarf mine and I hope you'll post a bunch more. Since you've joined in here, I gotta' pull out a couple of stories.
Back to '82, first year I was boating. By fall, I'd paddled a bunch of OC-1 miles, including a good clinic at NOC in the summer, and thought I was ready to tackle the Ocoee. Started asking around if anyone was headed east for a fall trip and was introduced to Mike Beard. Headed east with Beard, Kenny "HD-1" Holmes, and a couple of other guys in October. We did the Nanty and Hiwassee, then drove to the Ocoee and pulled into Thunder Rock to camp. Couple of hours after dark...campground is quiet...then NOT. Was about to get my introduction to the "Doobie Brothers!"
Vehicle pulls into the campground and a couple of guys pile out and start telling a pretty animated story of their "visit" with the local authorities. What I remember of it, as told by the aforementioned Franklin Bursk, is they were driving along Hwy 64, winding along the river, when they were pulled over by a sheriff's deputy. Driver rolls down the window and asks what the problem is. Deputy says, "Boys, you was drivin' 60!" Not sure the laws of physics would allow anyone to drive 60 mph along that stretch of highway, and I think the Doobies tried to point that out to the deputy, but I believe they still had to pay a visit to the county jail and left soon after with lighter wallets. But there MIGHT have been more involved than speeding...just speculating...
Doobie Story #2...I am convinced that Bursk wore only one pair of tan cotton shorts for boating his entire adult life. They were WELL used (maybe they were white when they were new???) and, shall we say, conspicuously lacking in modesty in certain spots. I remember being at a put-in parking lot somewhere, getting my gear ready. Bursk asks a few people to crowd around him so he can change into those tan shorts...mumbles something to them to the effect of "don't look at me!" to which one of the females snorts, "Hell, Franklin, I've seen you more than I've seen my own husband!"
But the Doobies were STOUT boaters. I remember on one of my first kayak runs on the Ocoee, I was in an eddy at Tablesaw. The Doobies were working ALL of the eddies in the rapid. Then Bursk spins out of his eddy into a reverse stationary draw. So in basically one stroke, he does a back ferry across the drop, right past the Tablesaw, and whips into an eddy on the other side of the river. Then JohnB pretty much duplicated the move. I think it was right about then my chin hit my sprayskirt - dang! - didn't even know a boat/er could do something like that.
Good times...back in the day.
ty
