THE RIVER GUIDE CHRISTIE COCHRAN
PHOTO: STEVEN MCBRIDE / COURTESY NANTAHALA OUTDOOR CENTER
FOR CHRISTIE COCHRAN, a love for flowing water is an inherited trait. Growing up in Texas, Cochran spent her childhood summers traveling and canoeing with her parents, both ardent river rats. They paddled the Guadelupe, San Marcos and Frio rivers in central Texas. When Mom and Dad learned about the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC), a Bryson, North Carolina-based whitewater facility with ac- cess to numerous southeastern rivers, they registered the family for canoeing and kayaking retreats. As an earth sciences student at Trinity University in San
Antonio, Cochran bucked family tradition (and her parents’ encouragement for her to be a river guide) to take on sum- mer internships in geology. Upon graduating in 1998, she finally gave in and applied to NOC to work as a raft guide. As it happened, she also received a job offer to do geologi- cal research. “Mom said, ‘You’re going to be a raft guide,’” says Cochran. “So I moved east.” Today, in between homeschooling her two children, Co-
chran still guides on some of the toughest rivers in the Southeast, including the Cheoah and Chattooga. Now known as Mama Christie at NOC, Cochran estimates
she’s guided more than 5,000 people down rivers in her 17- year career. She lists Mother Nature as her sole sponsor in a profile on NOC’s website.
“MOM SAID, ‘YOU’RE GOING TO BE A
RAFT GUIDE,’ SO I MOVED EAST.”
Over the years, Cochran’s inspired other female guides
and supported gender equality on the river. “Guys can muscle their way down the river,” she notes
“but women have to do it with finesse. Women are finding out that it’s something they can succeed at.” Cochran is one of the few guides “checked off” to lead
trips on all of the rivers NOC operates on, says Steven Foy, NOC’s director of guest relations and sales. “She’s one of the best river guides in the Southeast.” “I first met Christie when I was one of her instructors for
guide school in 1998,” says Cathy Kennedy, NOC’s direc- tor of operations. “We’ve been friends and coworkers ever since. I’ve been her boss and I’ve babysat her children. I know how hard it is to blend the life of a river guide with the challenges of raising a young family. Christie is one of the few women at NOC to have done this with success.” At the moment, Cochran’s greatest responsibility is shar-
ing her passion for the outdoors with her children. “I have a favorite picture of my infant son and I hiking up the trail from the Chattooga,” she says. “I have a boat on one shoul- der and my son on the other. I’m a momma to a baby, and here we are on the river.”
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