If you were drawing a map of “Raytopia,” it would include mountains, the river, sweeping vistas, slacklines, a bonfire pit, boat docks, 24 apartments, rope swings, osprey nests and a submerged volleyball court on a sandbar in the Tennessee River. It’s pretty much exactly the kind of place you would think that a paddleboarder and former Ocoee rafting guide turned developer might create.
Ray Gorrell has linked together such a place in the Tennessee River Gorge called River Canyon Adventures and has plans to expand his Raytopian borders by adding kayak rentals downtown.
And while plans are in the works for many outdoor-related businesses around Chattanooga, it’s safe to say that none will be exactly like this because there aren’t many people quite like Gorrell.
The first time apartment resident Katie Dishman ever met him, she was visiting friends at his apartments from her native Kansas. Gorrell excitedly hurried over to tell them a friend of his with a seaplane was about to land in the river. After the landing, Ray invited them aboard and the plane took off on an aerial tour of the city. “He’s not a traditional landlord in the slightest,” says Dishman, a paddleboarder and climber who moved into the apartments about three years ago. “He likes to hang out with us.”
Fellow resident Matt Spitalny had just gotten home from a concert in Atlanta one morning in April when Gorrell invited him to go for a ride in the pontoon boat. Six or seven minutes later, after dropping his bags at the apartment, Spitalny was headed downstream with Gorrell already needling him about swinging from a rope into the chilly water.