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Jessica Nelms

A relieved Chris Williams, 29, and his brother Peter, 23, talk about their ordeal with Andy Brown, rescue coordinator with Oconee County Emergency Services Wednesday after spending a night out on the Chattooga River.

LONG CREEK — It’s become a recurring theme deputy director of Oconee County Emergency Services Scott Krein has had to hear: more people are visiting the Chattooga River and not giving themselves enough time to complete their journeys.

Saturday evening saw two unidentified teenagers go missing along the Chattooga between Burrell’s Ford and the S.C. Highway 28 bridge in northern Oconee County due to darkness falling on them while on the water, Krein said.

The two teens were found safe within a matter of hours.

Chris and Peter Williams, 23 and 29 years old, respectively, also set out on the Chattooga on Wednesday, expecting a short ride between Earle’s Ford and the S.C. Highway 76 bridge. When their mother did not hear from them, she called emergency services to report them missing on the river.

Ultimately, she had little to fear.

“The two were both experienced on the river,” Emergency Services Director Rodney Burdette said. “They both knew to get off of the river once it got dark, and they were fine when we found them.”

The Williams brothers are from Alpharetta, Ga., an Atlanta suburb.

“They got out on the river, and as low as it was, it took them about twice as long to get down the water as they planned,” Krein said. “It’s so low, they underestimated the time it would take them. They just didn’t put in early enough.”

Krein said Saturday’s incident was the result of the same issue, as the boaters involved did not anticipate the darkness setting in on them before they reached the exit point at the river. Both incidents resulted in no injuries.

“It got dark, and both guys are experienced paddlers, so they knew it wasn’t good to be on the water once it was nighttime,” Krein said. “When daybreak came this morning, we found them where they had originally planned to take out of the water.”

Krein outlined steps that should be taken before hiking or boating on or along the Chattooga.

“It’s a good idea to check with local rangers and make sure what the projected times are for going down the river,” he said. “Since we’re in a drought, the low water levels make it slower than normal.”

Had both parties on Saturday and Wednesday stayed on the waters after nightfall, Krein said, the situation could have become treacherous. The respective areas involved can reach up to Class 3 rapids, a middle-level category level gauging difficulty and danger level in navigating whitewater.

“It’s good they got off, and that’s why they chose to do that,” he said. “They knew the rapids were approaching.”

Peter Williams, the younger of the two brothers, said they had called river personnel on the Nantahala, which flows into the Chattooga, before hitting the water.

“As we were going down, we got about three rapids down and noticed we were occasionally getting stuck,” he said. “That’s when we noticed the water was just getting more shallow. We weren’t able to run a lot of the rapids.

The water was so low, most of the rapids were way too slow to run. During flat water, we paddled as hard as we could, and we tried to run the shallows. But as the night fell, we just said ‘forget it’ and camped outside the boat on a rock.”

Despite the exposure and lack of food, the two brothers did just fine, he said.

“The temperature dropped, and it was a little bit of a rough night’s sleep,” Peter said. “But it was a good ending to an interesting story.”

The Williams’ brothers said they did not even know a search party had been formed until they were found.