Freshman summer experience recap part I:

This summer, new freshman river fellows from GPS joined two river fellows from CGLA for a week of experiences focused on the Tennessee River. You can read some of the highlights of the first part of the week below:

 From Lauren K: On Monday, June 15, we had one of the most memorable days of our lives. We started in the morning by meeting at GPS and introducing ourselves to everyone. We played a few games to learn what each of us liked and talked for a while before loading up in the bus and driving to the put in for our kayak trip. There we met our kayak instructors and guides, Terri and Sunshine. After eating some lunch and learning the basics of kayaking, we crossed the river for a quick history lesson from Patrice Glass, and then continued downstream. 

Along the way we went buoy wrestling, rope swinging, and we found some great rocks to jump off. As we went down the river, we also found various fruits and vegetables floating in the water such as: A watermelon, oranges, and some squash. With these findings, we created our “tribe name”, The Sasquashes. 

While waiting for our tasty lasagna, Rick Huffines from the Tennessee River Gorge Trust talked to us about what their organization works on and about the need for diversity in conservation work. After dinner, Danni and I noticed that we, as every other pale person on the trip, got very sunburnt, and spent the rest of our night in a lot of pain. The day was amazing. It introduced us to new people and we had so much fun. It made the pain feel worth it in the end.

From Charlotte V:  On Tuesday we woke up to Terri screaming "cacaw" and the smell of breakfast burritos permeating the house. Before we loaded our kayaks into the water, we noticed a deer making its way across the river. Then we put our kayaks into the warm water and struggled to get a picture of all of us lined up in the water. 

 After that we set sail and begun the second leg of our voyage to Raccoon Mountain. About halfway through we spotted an osprey nest and decided to check it out. As we got closer the mom became really grouchy so we left. 

credit: ospreywatch.org

 Towards the end of our paddle, we saw a barge coming up river and stopped to wait until it passed by. A few minutes later we completed our two-day kayaking trip and loaded the kayaks onto the trailer. Once back at GPS, we watched a documentary about dams called Dam Nation. We were all pretty exhausted from a very tiring, yet rewarding two days and were ready to get home a take a good nap.

On Wednesday we toured Raccoon Mountain pump storage facility and the Chickamauga Dam.  It was amazing and a little scary to be under the mountain and under the storage lake as we learned how this plant comes online quickly to generate power at times of high use. 

It was interesting that the power plant uses more energy than it generates but that energy is provided to users when they need it and is cheaper to use this local electricity than buying electricity from another area.

The Chickamauga dam is growing! We learned about concrete growth and how this affects how the dam has to be maintained. We were also able to see the locks, spillways, and huge repair tools up close. 

It was interesting how few people are needed on site compared to the hustle and bustle of the pump storage plant. The dam is operated almost entirely off-site from an office downtown. We also got to meet Annette Moore who is in charge of the Ocoee hydro stations. She was nice enough to take time out of her day to drive in before heading to a Rolling Stones concert. She talked to us about females in engineering and encouraged us to contact her if we would like more information or would like to consult her for a science project in the future.