Big Frog's History on the Ocoee River

Ocoee Adventure Company purchases 2nd Ocoee Outpost

In early 2002, the Ocoee Adventure Company purchased their second Ocoee outpost from USA Raft, a company which at that time had seven outposts in three states. For the outpost’s first season we operated under the name “USA Raft Ocoee”. To insure a smooth transition for our customers, reservations were taken by USA Raft at their main reservation center in West Virginia through early spring. However, the “same but different” name idea was confusing to our vendors and customers, so in 2003, we began the search for a new name to express who we are… and Big Frog Expeditions was launched! Big Frog moves in on the Ocoee River

The affiliation with USA Raft remained strong for a couple of years and the Ocoee outpost operated in a very similar fashion as before - BUT with the added expertise of an on-site seasoned local outpost manager named Rick Houlk, who was a 20 year river veteran and a well-known face on the Ocoee River.  Rick, as one of the founding partners in our business, wears many ‘hats’ for our company as well as running the Big Frog Outpost through 2008.

Improvements to the Big Frog Outpost

We began right away to make improvements to the outpost. Our first change was more green stuff around the place- new flowers, trees and shrubs around the outpost. That was followed by new rafts and equipment and lots of fun new adventures for our guests such as biking, hiking and kayaking trips. But most important was our focus on strong onsite management and hiring and training some of the best guides on the Ocoee.

Rick Houlk

Rick Houlk, Big Frog Outpost Manager, 2002-2008

New manager for Big Frog in 2009

As Rick Houlk’s time became more and more split with other duties in the company, a second strong manager took over Rick’s job. Jennifer Perdew joined our company in 2004 as Operations Manager and began to oversee myriad tasks for the company. Jen had been part of the river community for over nine years, starting out as a reservationist with Southeastern Expeditions in 1995. After mastering the skill of talking on the phone to customers, she moved on to run the place! We were excited to have her overseeing ops for our office and outposts since we had grown considerably since our company was founded in 1996.In 2009, Jen took over as Big Frog’s outpost manager, while she still manages to oversee Operations for the company as well.

Jennifer Perdew and Larry Mashburn

Jennifer Perdew, our Operations Manager, with Larry Mashburn, Managing Partner for Ocoee Adventure Company

By the way, Jen’s name is now officially Jennifer Perdew Houlk! How did that happen?

Well now, that’s a whole n’other story….

 

 

 

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Big Frog Expeditions sign at outpost

Ocoee Adventure Co. - Who are We?

The Ocoee Adventure Company LLC began operating on the Ocoee in 1997 with one outpost - Ocoee Adventure Center (OAC) - which is located in Ducktown, TN at the eastern gateway to the Cherokee National Forest. The company was created by our Managing Partner, Larry Mashburn, immediately following the completion of the 1996 Olympic Whitewater Competition on the Ocoee River. Larry and other partners in the company played key roles as volunteers for this prestigious event on the Upper Ocoee. They all had so much fun being part of the Ocoee River community, that the decision to make it a permanent lifestyle was a no-brainer!

Since that exciting year when we added Big Frog as our second outpost, our company purchased a 3rd rafting company in 2006. Our Southeastern Expeditions outpost operates on the Chattooga River on the SC/GA border. The same year, Ocoee Adventure Company added a 75 ft cruising yacht to our adventure lineup. Blue Moon Cruises operates eco-tours into the Tennessee River Gorge out of Chattanooga, TN.