Today is Anything can happen day!
Start: River Mile: 546
Finish: River Mile: 523
Day Total: 19
Trip Total: 126
Got up early this morning. Thanks to the cold night, I tossed and turned from 5:30 - 6:30, then finally gave up and went outside. I was able to stir our campfire back to life and soon I was brewing coffee by the lovely warmth of a crackling fire.
This site on Goat Island really is a beautiful place. The sunrise from camp was awesome. In a different world, I’ve have stayed there for much longer. Thanks again to David Bolling, City Manager for Kingston, TN for the great recommendation!
Early morning pack-up on Goat Island
The paddling conditions were a bit on the chilly side, but we had flat water and a very light breeze. The stretch from 546 all the way to the Lock & Dam is dotted with Islands that have limestone shores, green hardwood forests and lots of wildlife. We paddled past a very small Island, maybe 50 feet long, that was a Great Blue Heron rookery. One small tree must have had 15 little white, fluffy baby Herons. We lingered for a while and enjoyed watching them.
12 miles into our day, we entered Watts Bar Lock & Dam, the second lock through of our journey. We had to wait for the chamber to fill, but after 30 minutes the massive doors swung open and we paddled in side. The drop was not quite as extreme as the Fort Lauden lock, but we were still lowered 60 feet. We were so excited to exit the lock and have some current. Sadly, they were not releasing water through the spill way, so we had the work for it, the old fashioned way, one paddle stroke at the time.
Riding the lock down 60 feet
After the lock, there really wasn’t much to look forward to. We had planned to paddle 21 miles to a piece of TVA land and carve out a site. Around mile 534, we really started to drag. By then the sun was out and since we were dressed for the cold weather we had experienced most of the day, the sun helped to sap our strength a bit.
We came upon a boat ramp on mile 523 and pulled off for a break We had been looking for some way to get to the town of Decatur. When we looked at the navigation app, it was only 2.4 miles from the ramp. Jon was eager to get out of his boat and volunteered to walk to town. Before that, we decided to camp in the TVA land that is adjacent to the ramp. Once we got everything set up, Jon grabbed his gear and started walking. He was gone about an hour. When he came back, we was stepping out of a large pick-up truck driven by and old timer named James, who had a tiny little Chihuahua on this lap named Sadie. Apparently, a 1/4 mile down the road from the ramp, James and Sadie pulled up and asked Jon if he needed a ride. James was nice enough to take him to the grocery store to pick up lunch for tomorrow and Subway for dinner tonight. Jon tried to get James to accept some form of payment, cash or something from the store, but James insisted he didn’t need anything.
Our beautiful TVA campsite at RM 523
So, indeed anything can happen on Anything can Happen Day!
No comments:
Post a Comment