13-05-2025
Nolichucky raft guides likely to lose 2025 season in Gorge
ERWIN, Tenn. and POPLAR, N.C. (WJHL) — Slayton Johnson held out hope for months that he and fellow rafting outfitters could access the Nolichucky River Gorge this year and not see an entire season's revenue vanish.
How will rafting on the Nolichucky change after Hurricane Helene?
Now, the man who purchased Wahoo's Adventures Nolichucky Outpost barely a year ago is resigned to the near-certainty that this season is a wash. The nail in the coffin came in the form of a letter from a Pisgah National Forest District Ranger: '(T)he Poplar Boat Launch recreation site … and Road will remain closed to public and commercial use until the site has been fully restored.'
'The Forest Service has allowed CSX to use our parking lot that we begin the river at as a staging area for their rebuild,' Johnson said. Indeed, since shortly after violent floodwaters from Hurricane Helene tore through the Gorge and destroyed CSX's line, the company has been posted up at a federally-owned launch funded by rafting user fees.
Safety has been cited at times, but Johnson said all the rail has been removed from the river and private kayakers and rafters have been running it for months. The access point in Poplar, N.C., though, remained a busy scene filled with heavy equipment Monday.
'It's tons of heavy machinery, lots of incoming deliveries, outgoing, things like that, so they just don't want us to share the risk of being in that construction zone,' Johnson said.
But Johnson said he still believes a compromise could have been reached. And he said when members of the fledgling group Nolichucky Outdoor Recreation Association (NORA) found an alternative put-in on private property just upriver, CSX said they wouldn't grant an easement across tracks that won't be in use until at least December.
'Absolutely safe river,' Johnson said. 'The Forest Service is not disputing that, nor is CSX necessarily. That was one of their main objection points, which has been met.'
As it looks now, a rail rebuild that could run into the hundreds of millions is taking precedence over local jobs that both Johnson and Erwin Alderman and small business owner Michael Baker say are critical to the town and Unicoi County's economy.
'Our community of about 150, 200 guides, they're all gone,' Johnson said. 'They're now working other rivers, other jobs, other towns.'
He's afraid one missed season could have a larger impact due to a focus on return guests.
'Folks have been rafting with Wahoo's for 25, 30 years. Now they'll probably go find another river this summer, and that could mean that they go back to that river again the next summer and the next summer. So bit of a domino effect with missing one summer.'
Baker said rafting guests are a 'big piece' of an $18 million tourism industry in Unicoi County, along with Appalachian Trail hikers and people coming to see the area's natural beauty.
'It's the lodging that comes with it, people staying here and all the residuals that happens with it,' Baker said. 'Not everybody in the party rafts, there's usually a family and some go hiking, some go caving. It's a big loss for this year not having the permits on the Gorge.'
Like Johnson, Baker said he was hopeful a compromise might be worked out. Not many miles away as the crow flies, a Norfolk Southern rail rebuild is co-existing with rafting companies along the Helene-ravaged French Broad River.
3 federal agencies sued over CSX rail repair work in Nolichucky Gorge
'I would think that there could have been, but I understand, you know, we have to build back the railroad and we have to make it safe,' Baker said.
Outfitters have applied for state grants administered through the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency. They've worked out a deal with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy to provide ferry service where the Chestoa Bridge, now washed out, used to cross the Nolichucky at the AT. And the East Tennessee Foundation recently provided the first $100,000 of what may be additional funds for the companies to provide river cleanup services.
'We are doing everything we can in our power to survive this summer and be able to come back and provide this experience to folks next year, because the river is significantly enhanced,' Johnson said. 'It really is a better experience.'
He lauded the East Tennessee Foundation and its grant.
'The East Tennessee Foundation is awesome,' Johnson said. 'They're hooking us up with some grant money to do river cleanups here on the lower Nolichucky and we'll be able to clean it up, get a lot of hazards that are downstream of the section that we normally raft out of the river and just make it a way for us to survive this year.'
Johnson said the railroad's refusal to consider an alternative site on private property is a bitter pill to swallow.
'I feel very terrible for everybody that lost a whole lot more than we did, but that doesn't make this injustice feel any better,' he said. 'I've tried to really do things the right way, stay out of the river, trust the process, trust our government officials that this was all going to work out.'
That CSX is using a staging area paid for by rafting user fees doesn't lessen the sting, he said.
'Let's just say somebody owns a hardware store and a company comes in and overtakes their parking lot and says, 'I know that this is yours, but you can no longer operate. We're going to kick you out.'
'Your source of income is gone and that's that. There's a term called being railroaded, and we're being railroaded here on the Nolichucky and the parking lot itself.'
Dara Worrell of the East Tennessee Foundation said businesses like Johnson's — and the people who run them — are crucial to Southern Appalachia's economic future.
'I think natural resources are a reason a lot of people come to East Tennessee to visit or live, and we think economic development and natural resources are going to be huge in bringing these areas back (after Helene),' Worrell said.
Baker said he hopes that in the long run, recreation and tourism-related businesses will flourish in Unicoi County.
'I think a lot of people have the vision to rebuild and to make the outdoor industry even stronger,' he said.
'I do know that there's a commitment from the state and our regional partners that once we are built back, to spread the word that Unicoi County is open, our tourism industry is open, and we look forward to having visitors locally, regionally and worldwide come to our county.'
Johnson, who with his wife put years of work experience and savings into a bet on Wahoo's in early 2024, hopes he's around to be part of that renaissance.
'I'm a hard-working American,' Johnson said. 'I pay my taxes. I've worked endless jobs to be able to afford this company, and it's just unfortunate that it's being taken away so that the railroad can, I guess, save a few bucks.
'I don't think you get to owning a business if you don't have a bit of perseverance. So we are going to persevere.'
News Channel 11 requested comment from CSX Monday afternoon about rationale behind their concerns about allowing a put-in location for the rafting companies but had not heard back by publication time.
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