On our way back to Charlotte from Lake Lure, we decided to stop and take the kids river tubing for the first time. They were super excited to give it a try.
We found a few different places online and ended up at Green River Cove Tubing based on reviews and location. We packed a picnic lunch, checked out of our house on Lake Lure, and headed about thirty minutes southwest.
After eating a quick lunch in the back of the car, we got our tubes and life jackets for the kids and hopped on a bus that took us upriver. We were told that there were class one and two rapids on this stretch of the river, but there was very little in the way of instructions. We were basically told just to hop in and let the current carry us back to their location. Sounded easy enough.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t. Things went wrong almost immediately. The water was flowing swiftly in the place where we entered the river. My husband was swept downstream as soon as he got in the tube, leaving me with both boys. JB got into his tube without a problem and floated next to me but RB struggled to get in without tipping over.
I quickly got RB situated and looked up to see JB floating down the river by himself. Of course, about 100 yards downstream, the river split in two. The main part of the river was off to the right, which was the side of the river we had entered on. There was a narrow piece of land that divided off a small section of river on the left. Almost everyone was carried by the current to the right of the island. But not my 7 year old. I watched in horror as he was swept off by himself to the lefthand side of the divide.
I could still see my husband ahead on the right, so I let RB continue to float that way and tried desperately to paddle across the current to the other side of the divide. I didn’t make it. My next best option was to speed ahead as fast as I could to make sure I was there when the river joined back together. I yelled to him the whole way, hoping he could hear my voice and wouldn’t be as scared if he knew where I was.
I had no idea when the two parts of the river were going to meet back up. It could have been an hour downstream for all I knew. And when they did join back up, our timing could have been off and I would never know if he was already ahead of me or was still upriver in the separate section. It was truly terrifying that my 7 year old was by himself on the other side and I had no way to get to him.
Thankfully, it only lasted about 5 minutes and our timing was very close so we met up fairly easily when the two parts met back up. I thanked God about a million times and the four of us were able to regroup and join together.
What we had intended to do before the swift current at the starting point pulled us away from each other was to tie our tubes together with a rope. Now that we were back together and the river was calmer, we were able to do that. JB and I were tethered together and RB and Blair were too. This gave me some peace of mind.
We settled into a relaxing float down the river. The calm parts were really enjoyable. We definitely had moments where we enjoyed the scenery and the peacefulness of the outdoors. But the rapid parts were more than we had bargained for. We were constantly having to duck to avoid low tree branches, dislodge ourselves from fallen trees, and paddle against the current to keep ourselves on the safest course.
As we went on further, I started to worry about how we would get out at the right spot. I wasn’t entirely sure what we were looking for as our exit point, nor how easy it would be to navigate to it.
Turns out I was right to be concerned. JB and I were ahead of Blair and RB when we came to a sharp turn in the river. The current had pushed most of the tubers to the right hand side, close to the far side shore. The river banked sharply left and again there was a small piece of land dividing the river in two. There was a small, barely visible sign at the tip of the land with an arrow pointing for Green River Tubing to exit to the left.
So to recap, we were on the far righthand side, the river turned sharply left, and we had to fight across the swift current to make it to the lefthand side of the divide. You can probably guess what happened. Some of us made it. Some of us did not.
I was able to pull myself and JB across to the left hand side of the divide. It was not easy. I paddled frantically and had to stand up on the rocky bottom and pull JB out of the current and off to the side with me. The whole time I was screaming to Blair that this was the exit and they had to get over. But it was too late for them. I watched in horror as they missed the split and were carried off downstream on the other side of the divide. At least they were together.
I struggled to get out, slipping and falling on the rocks and banging myself up. I pulled JB out with me and then ran to the office. I told them my husband and son had missed the exit and were headed downstream. They sort of shrugged and said it happened all the time. They said there was another tubing place a little downstream and that they’d be able to get out there. They sent someone in a truck to pick them up and bring them back.
That was all well and good that this situation was common to the employees, but of course my husband and son had no idea that there was another exit point ahead. All they knew was that they had missed our exit and were headed downstream. And RB was terrified. As soon as they were able, they paddled over to the lefthand bank and got out. They dragged their tubes up a steep hill and through the underbrush and made it back to the road, where they headed back up to our starting point.
Reading reviews on Trip Advisor, this experience seems to be really hit or miss. Some people loved it and had great experiences. But they have more than their share of “Terrible” rankings. Reviews entitled “Death Trap” and “Should’ve been fun but was terrifying instead” told similar tales of horror. While I fully understand that this is nature and not a waterpark ride, I feel like the company should better prepare people. They should have set expectations better based on the river’s current conditions and should have provided some instruction. Better yet, they could offer guides or even just have employees out on the water available to help people. But the thing that is really inexcusable to me is that they know they have a difficult exit point and do not provide ANY advance warning so you can start making your way over to the other side of the river. Signs further upstream would have been so helpful to know you were coming close to the exit and you had to get over to the left. If you are just letting the river carry you along, you will NOT be brought to the exit point.
I had this idyllic vision of a relaxing float down the river with a few moments of excitement sprinkled in when the rapids picked up. What we got was nothing like that. I felt horrible that we had taken our kids on this because it felt really unsafe. At some point down the road, we will probably be able to look back on this experience and just think of it as a good story. But not yet. Needless to say, we will not be back.