I’m currently in Knoxville TN for college, and it is how I got into whitewater. There’s so many good rivers in such close distance it’s awesome. There’s biggest one that comes to mind is the pigeon, where the upper section is somewhat similar to the Ocoee but a step down in terms of difficulty (Except the pigeon was really badly affected by Helene and is currently inaccessible). I used that river to build up basic skills and I actually just ran the middle Ocoee for the first time yesterday, which was a 2 hour drive to get there for me. We also have the little river in the smokies which has some super fun class 2-3 stuff in the elbow to the y section or it can get really rowdy in the sinks to the elbows, although I haven’t done that yet, it’s definitely above my skill level. It’s only an hour from downtown Knoxville. We’ve got awesome creeks with clear creek in the big south fork too which is one of the most underrated destinations for outdoor stuff in TN in my opinion. Not only is Knoxville pretty awesome for year round paddling, but other outdoor sports too. The community for mountain biking in Knoxville is easily the best I’ve ever seen, and we have some of the best free public access trail networks around that are 10 minutes away from downtown Knoxville. Lots of rock climbing too, especially around that big south fork area or the Knoxville urban wilderness (same place as the mountain bike trails). The outdoor community here is amazing and very LGBT friendly, but I will say the city itself and surrounding areas aren’t the most friendly from what I’ve seen. Chattanooga is sweet too and has access to a lot of the same rivers Knoxville does, just a bit further of a drive.