Tennessee River Thru Paddle - Day 29 (5/9/21)

Even the worst day has a best part

Start: River Mile: 119

Finish: River Mile: 118

Day Total: 2

Trip Total: 537

Well, we knew that we had  thunderstorms to look forward to today. Our hope was that we would have a 4 hour window to get some miles in. Leslie drove us the 48 minutes to see he boat ramp were we had stashed our boats in the woods yesterday. The forecast was not in our favor, but we really felt like we could make it 10 miles or so. 

Well, as we entered the main river, the wind was whipping. The forecast called for 10-15 mph wind, but it was blowing a steady 20 mph and gusting to 35 mph. We paddled for 45 minutes with the wind driven waves following from our back right. In that time I took over 20 waves over my cockpit. We stayed close to shore so that if we got swamped we would be in a better position to land. 

I hit one set of waves that almost knocked me over. Just at that moment, I noticed a little cove. I paddled straight for it hoping Jon would follow. He did and we were able to access our situation. We knew that it was not safe to continue to try and paddle. So, we started looking for a place to weather the storm. 

Home is where the tent is

After the better park of an hour, we found a spot that allowed us to get out of the wind and get our tents set up. We had our tents up and gear stowed just as the rain began to pour down. We rode out two rounds of thunderstorms from 10:30 to 2:00. At that point we had a break from the rain. We had a late lunch of leftover steak. The weather apps looked like there was a couple hour break in the storms. So we decided to see if we could have a fire. 

Jon Wunrow, campfire whisperer 

My attempt failed, but Jon was able to get one going. I made a quick ravioli dinner. We had a Bourbon and enjoyed the fire. It was, the best part of the day!  

Bourbon in the rain

The forecast for the morning looks good. We plan on getting on the water as soon as possible tomorrow so we can log some decent miles.  As I write, we are hunkered down in our tents riding out yet another round of thunderstorms. We have a solid 12 hours in our tents before the morning. Hoping for a good day tomorrow.  

Riding the storm out