dived into "Souse Hole", slammed into rocks here and more rocks there. Seemed like the harder you paddled the more rocks you'd hit. You'd just whirl and twirl and wham into more big boulders you hadn't even seen. Sometimes that white-faced water would stand straight up and slam you smack-kadab all over the raft, or out of it. Man, that was a wild trip!" Inversely, a lack of adequate rainfall throughout the summer considerably increases the difficulty of navigating the pre-existing aspects of the rapids, which already tend towards being both technically difficult and challenging for rafters. These unusually dry conditions and concomitant low water levels reveal a vast diversity of hitherto unseen features. These hazards are ordinarily submerged during summers with normal seasonal rainfall patterns, and the associated lower water levels Seasonal droughts can make rafting trips inadvisable or simply impassable (nothing's impossible), prompting local rafting companies in Unicoi County to sometimes divert whitewater river trips to the Watauga River running through Elizabethton, Tennessee in Carter County. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) regulates flow of the Watauga River and guarantees a minimum release schedule accommodating whitewater rafting companies during the summer season with the regular release of deep, impounded reservoir waters from behind both the Watauga Dam and the Wilbur Dam. See also Conway Bridge, one of its crossings List of North Carolina rivers List of Tennessee rivers References External links River flow data (USGS) American Whitewater reach description Middle Nolichucky Watershed Alliance Tributaries of the French Broad River Rivers of North Carolina Rivers of Tennessee Rivers of Yancey County, North Carolina Rivers of Mitchell County, North Carolina Rivers of Unicoi County, Tennessee Rivers of Washington County, Tennessee Rivers of Greene County, Tennessee Rivers of Hamblen County, Tennessee Rivers of Cocke County, Tennessee