Tennessee River Thru Paddle - Day 4 (4/14/21)

 We Heart Kingston, TN!

Start: River Mile: 587 

Finish: River Mile: 568 

Day Total: 20.5

Trip Total: 88

We awoke to a cold and damp morning in camp. Once we get up and moving, have our coffee and breakfast it’s not too bad. Since it was cold and humid last night call our gear was soaking wet with condensation. That’s never a fun pack up. But, the spot we had to load our boats was flat and the water ankle deep to it was very pleasant.

Breaking camp on a cold, wet morning

With our tents and other critical gear wet and rain predicted for the late afternoon and on through midnight, we opted for a shorter day and headed for the town of Kingston, TN. From our research we knew there was a hotel and a few restaurants. The big unknown for us today was two fold. One, were would be store our boats and gear? Two, how would we get ourselves and our wet things to the hotel, nearly two miles away from the municipal marina? We had done all the research we could do. So, it would be us figuring out the details on the fly once we got there, in hopes the rain wouldn’t start until after we had this all figured out and were safe and dry in our hotel room.

We landed at the Kingston Municipal Marina at around 3:00 pm. Jon found the phone number the a Parks & Rec department to inquire about us storing our boats in the secure facility.  He got sent to a voice mail, left a message, tried a different department and  was able to leave the number for the Parks Director Chase Clan. While he was working the phones I went to use the public restroom. Inside there was a parts employee named Sonny who, seeing me in my life jacket asked if I was paddling the 652? Not being familiar with the 652, I explained we were paddling the entire Tennessee River to Paducah KY at the Ohio river. I asked if he could put us in touch with someone who had the code for the gate to the marina? Well, it turns out Sonny had the code and walked me over to show me how to punch it in. As we where walking to the marina, we passed Jon who was now speaking with the Parks Dir Chase about storing our boats. By the time Jon’s call was over, Sonny had the gate open and Chase was on his way to give us a ride to the hotel!!!!

That is a really good story if it ended right there, but it doesn’t. Instead of taking us directly to the hotel, Chase diverts to City Hall to meet his boss David Bolling the city manager. We meet David and sit down in his office. David is a big time paddler. AND, he is working in partnership with Brad Collet who has been guiding us since we launched on Sunday and had been working his network of contacts to get logistical support in Kingston. AND and, David was one of the people that Brad has reached out too, but he had been in meetings all day. Talk about things working out for us!

Brad offered to drive out from Knoxville to meet us and we accepted. When he picked us up at the hotel, he wanted to know if it as ok for a couple other people to join us. Of course we agreed. At dinner we also met some county executives that are working with Brad and the Tennessee River Line to develop a regional water trail to draw paddlers from around the world, like the Appalachian Trail does for hikers. We had a nice dinner with them explaining the partnership and their goals and them asking us about our experience planning the trip along with the actual journey up to this point. We have gotten so much out of our time here in Kingston and with Brad’s assistance that we are only too happy help them succeed in any way we can.

The vision for Tennessee River line is really cool. To learn more about it, please visit their web site https://www.tnriverline.org/ or their Facebook page at Tennessee RiverLine.

Li’l Pug is happy today!

Beautiful day for paddling