Tennessee River Thru Paddle - Day 27 (5/7/21)

Fisherdale Marina and river magic

Start: River Mile: 159

Finish: River Mile: 140

Day Total: 19

Trip Total: 515

After the drama of yesterday, it was nice to wake up this morning to clear sky’s and calm wind. After pack-up we paddled along the shore down river from our camp, searching for any sign of my camp chair or food bag. No luck. Jon did spot one of my paddling socks on a rocky area, but it was only one sock and would have been impossible to get to. Sorry little sock.

Jon drying is stuff out... and sitting in his chair!

I spent a good part of the morning on the phone with REI trying to coordinate getting a replacement camp chair sent ahead to the Fisherdale Marina so that it will be delivered before we leave on Sunday morning. They said it would arrive tomorrow (Saturday) but we‘ll see. 

We had only one slight snag today. We had pulled up on a small sandy beach on river left for lunch. I had the best chicken salad tortilla of the entire trip, jazzed up with pickles from Jon. I noticed a large cruiser yacht coming up river about a mile away. My goal was to be back in my boat before the wake from the yacht hit. Well, my timing was off by 5 minutes. Just as I was getting my boat ready to hop in, the big 2 foot waves started hitting us. Jon took on a bunch of water in his boat. I was able to avoid that, but had to ride out the waves before I could get in my boat. 

Jon is waaay back there. A rare sight indeed

We had another beautiful stretch of river to paddle today. We arrived at the marina at 2:30, tired and glad our paddling day was over. Jon had reached out to this marina a few days ago to secure lodging for his wife Leslie’s two night visit. Donna Wadford, whose family owns and operates the marina gave us a great deal on a two night stay, and even upgraded us to the guest house. 

Beautiful scenery today

The only down side with the house is there is no wi-fi and there is no cell service at all with AT&T. So, the only way to get online is to come over to the restaurant. Not a big deal. 

Donna took every opportunity to introduce us to people, telling them about our adventures. One couple in particular chatted with me for 10 minutes. A bit later, as Jon and I were sitting at our table, Henry walked over and said, “After this moment, you have to pay for your tab”. In other words, he had picked up our dinner tab! As we were thanking him, he just explained that he just wanted to be part of our journey. More river magic, so awesome! Thank you Henry.