Back on the river, crossing the big water
Start: River Mile: 386
Finish: River Mile: 367
Day Total: 19
Trip Total: 286
Our gracious local hosts Sarah and Daniel, met us at the hotel at 7:30 am. We hauled boats and gear back to the boat ramp at RM 386. The weather was cool and mostly cloudy, with a light 5 mph breeze coming from the Northeast. For the first hour, it was at our backs and was gently pushing us along.
Big water today
As the clouds started breaking up the temps increased but so did the wind. We ended up paddling most of the day with some very tricky following seas. This is a challenge as it pushes waves at you from your blind spot. Jon is especially vulnerable to this in his canoe. It would only take one rouge wave to swamp his boat, which is not a good situation on a big, open body of water.
Speaking of big water, I want to take a moment to paint the picture for you. We are 20 plus miles up river from the Guntersville Lock & Dam. The river is very much a large lake at this point. From 2 to 4 miles wide and 30 miles in length. It makes lake Pepin on the Mississippi River look like a pond. The wind whips up big waves that today were 1 ft to 2 ft high.
So, even though with temp was comfortable, we really had to work hard to keep our boats from being swamped. After 7 hours of paddling, we found a nice flat spot on TVA land to set up camp. It was just after 3:00pm so I had time to change out of my wet clothes and get them laid out in the sun to dry. My boat had also taken on quite a bit of water so I had time to sponge out all the water and let the sun and wind dry everything out.
As I write, we are enjoying our first camp fire in almost a week. Sitting by the fire, having a Bourbon and posting my blog is the best part of the day for me.
Camp on day 15
Just after dinner, I got a text from our river angel Sarah. She shot some video this morning of our pack up and paddle out. In the text she included a short video. I will try to add it this this post. https://youtu.be/wN2a-t54nHc
1 comment:
Loved the video. What an angel ! Hard to imagine paddling in a lake miles wide. Hang in there, There’s a dam and narrower water just ahead.
😍Dad
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