Courtesy of Julie Johnson
Jules Johnson—the grinning guide at rear of raft—has been taking rafters through Class III and IV rapids on the Ocoee River for 20 years.
From the front porch of the Ocoee, Tennessee, outfitter where she works as a river guide and marketing manager, Julie “Jules” Johnson is watching a pair of hawks building a nest in the top of a tall pine. The same feathered couple showed up last summer, as the irises faded to daylilies in the gardens surrounding the building. Taking a deep breath, Johnson breathes in the warm air.
“I worship God,” says the compassionate, free-spirited nature lover, “but I chase the sun.”
It’s been 20 years since Johnson started taking rafters on the Class III and IV rapids of the Ocoee River, site of the 1996 Olympic whitewater competition. Now 39, she juggles multiple responsibilities at Adventures Unlimited, which offers trips down the Ocoee and the gentler Hiwassee, as well as lodging and a “bus bar” on 30 acres of landscaped and forested property.
An athletic child who grew up playing softball in Dalton, Georgia, as a high school freshman Johnson made the varsity basketball team—“my height helps; I’m 6 feet tall,” she quips—and often went fishing, hunting and camping with her dad, who also taught her how to snow ski and ride a four-wheeler. Because of her basketball accomplishments, a number of large colleges tried to recruit her. But there was a catch: Many of the coaches wanted to “red-shirt” her the first year, which meant she wouldn’t get to do more than practice until she was a sophomore.
One day she and her father were returning home from one of the schools when, Johnson says, “I just looked at him in the truck with big tears in my eyes and I was like, ‘Daddy? I don’t know how to sit the bench. I’ve always been on the court or in the field, and always been a team leader.’ And he said, ‘Well, let’s quit looking at schools that are so big.’ And it was almost like a ray of sun came down.”
Cleveland State Community College soon offered her a full basketball scholarship and she set out to earn a degree in forestry. Her new coach required her to get a summer job doing something physical outdoors, so she asked the outdoor recreation professor with whom he shared an office for ideas. The teacher suggested she train to be a river guide.
“I didn’t even know the river was out here,” Johnson says. “I fell in love with the sport. Even though it is a job, it is still a team sport. It still requires a group of people to come together to get to the finish line. I never looked back.”
Julie Johnson
The scale of Jules Johnson’s rafting operation is matched by her involvement in other aspects of advocacy for her part of Tennessee.
After switching her major to recreation, Johnson earned her associate degree while working winters as a substitute teacher, licensed bartender and, at Snowshoe, West Virginia, a children’s ski instructor—jobs that allowed her to “be where my heart desires” each summer. After paying her dues with “grunt work” at the Ocoee outfitter she started out with, she became a trip leader. About five years ago, she left to briefly work at a different company before being asked to open a new restaurant in a former rafting bus at Adventures Unlimited in 2015. Having managed another bar down the road before the widening of U.S. Highway 64 shuttered it, she jumped at the chance to use her mixology skills again.
Before long, Johnson’s job morphed into a much more encompassing one. At first, she balked at the notion of being the outfitter’s marketing manager and group sales agent. “I was like, ‘Well none of that sounds like me,’” she says. “I’m kind of bohemian, with the long hair. And I’m a tomboy, not really the sit-at-the-computer marketing kind of girl.”
“Well what do you want to be?” her boss asked. For the next few days, Johnson, her employer and his wife jokingly tossed around possible titles. The Sunshine Grower, perhaps? Or The People Person? Then one day the word “steward” came up.
“I am a steward of this region,” Johnson says. “I care about the tourism. I care about the nonprofits. I care about the kids, care about the trash on the side of the road. And it hit me: Steward of Sunshine. Even when it’s raining, I have to make it fun.”
The title now appears on her business card and other official paperwork.
As president of Ocoee River Jam, the community’s only weekend-long music festival, Johnson has also raised funds for the local Boys and Girls Club, Ace Kayaking School and Operation Pillowcase, an American Red Cross program that provides pillowcases full of essentials and toys to kids displaced by house fires and other disasters. The seventh annual Jam takes place in July.
Julie Johnson
Of Parksville Lake, Jules Johnson says, “Even though you’re in a lake, you’re still in river water.”
The bus bar, where a bonfire and live music take place on weekends, is now a visitor hot spot with craft beer, burgers and pizza. In off season, Johnson spends much of her time in her sales role. In summer, she works from dawn till late in the night, guiding groups on the upper and middle Ocoee. During the 10-mile, full-river trip, she shares the Olympics story, feeds her passengers a hot lunch by the banks, and gives them what may be the thrill of a lifetime.
“My job is to give guests the best experience they can have on the Ocoee,” she says. “We may be somebody’s bucket list. We may be their main thing for the summer. We may be the biggest thing they’ve ever done, and we need to give them the best treatment.”
Many are complete novices. “I used to say if you have two legs and two arms, you can go rafting,” Johnson says. “But I can’t say that anymore because I’ve taken paraplegics, quadriplegics, amputees, people from China that do not speak English. Now that’s a trip, when you get people in your boat that have a huge language barrier. Overweight, underweight, underprivileged, overprivileged, doctors, lawyers, nurses, schoolteachers, janitors—you name it, they come rafting.”
And some leave a lasting impression on Johnson. Two summers ago, while floating through flat water at the end of the trip, a 14-year-old girl with Down syndrome turned around with a big grin and tears in her eyes and said, “I want to be just like you when I grow up, Miss Julie.”
“I feel like I make a difference in people’s lives, and I get to meet families from all over the world,” Johnson says. “That’s the best part of the job, to actually get to be in the back of a raft, splashing through rapids, and see people go from scared to confident. That’s such a huge, feel-good moment.”
The story above appears in our July/August 2019 issue. For more – including a list of Johnson's favorite spots on the Ocoee river – subscribe today or log in to the digital edition with your active digital subscription. Thank you for your support!