Bill's TN Paradise: Boating, hiking ... Sewanee to Chattanooga to NC

Monday, August 11, 2014

Boating, hiking ... Sewanee to Chattanooga to NC

It was a great week. Brought the boat to my house in Sewanee for the first time en route to the TN River, Chattanooga, and Fontana Lake in the GSMNP.

I'd studied it for a long time and was confident I could get the boat up my driveway in Sewanee and turn it around. No problem.

Roya and I enjoyed a Monday evening workout in Sewanee's Fowler Center then left Tuesday for the TN River Gorge. Cruising the 30 miles from Marion Co. park to Chattanooga, the old boat performed flawlessly, cruising at 32 mph. After an IMAX movie and a trip to the Aquarium, we had dinner and left for a night on the boat in the gorge. There is one place, just up river from the Raccoon Mtn TVA facility, that is completely wild and undeveloped, with high mountains on both sides. We floated at sunset down river a mile or 2 in this location, my favorite part of the river. Just beautiful. I swear, we did not see one other boat for 12 hrs, all night long. Highly unusual for a commercially navigated waterway.

We pulled out on Wednesday and arrived at Fontana Lake late afternoon on Wed. After dinner, swimming and watching the sunset, we took a night time walk on the dam. Beautiful.

Thursday we did the 8 mile round trip to Shuckstack from Eagle Creek up the Lost Cove Trail to the Appalachian Trail. The climb was difficult as usual. 2500' in 4 miles. Great weather. Glad to see all the wood on the tower has been replaced. Looks like they'll keep it for a while. Unfortunately, it is not possible to get on the roof of the lookout shack like we used to. They put a solid piece of plywood on the roof.

Friday morning early, it rain and rained for 9 hrs. Good time to watch movies. We got a brief respite early afternoon and took the opportunity to head back to Mufreesboro. We encountered one brief intense storm approaching Monteagle. The same storm seemed to spawn a tornado captured on my weather station webcam in Sewanee.

Great trip.

Here's the photos!