The Tennessee Blueway-The beginning
After almost a month of planning, the day finally arrived, June 30, 2016. Our friend April Coomer drove us to Chattanooga on Thursday night where we had a last meal at PF Chang’s, a goodnights sleep in an actual bed, and a final shower before we departed early the next morning! We made it to Greenway Farm on North Chickamauga Creek about 2 miles above the Chickamauga Dam! This is a place we need to check out further, but for now, we just needed the boat launch! After loading the boat, which I had practiced 3 times in my basement, we pushed off a little after 9 am. The creek was beautiful, narrow and slow moving. We paddled for about 30 minutes before reaching the bridge which crosses the Chickamauga Dam. Now, Phyllis had been very nervous ever since I told her we were starting ABOVE the dam! However, as I told her, the creek comes down a channel by the dam and out onto the Tennessee River! She finally relaxed after we went under the bridge! As we moved out onto the Tennessee, I had my first realization that this was going to be a very different paddle than I had expected! For the hundreds of times I had visited Chattanooga and looked at the river, I had never seen it from a canoe! IT IS HUGE!!! It was almost more like an ocean paddle than a lake or river paddle! Even though it was the weekend of the 4th, on our first day we had the river almost to ourselves! Our first nature sighting also made me wonder if I had made the right decision on this trip or if it might be our last! I had made a little gallows humor when I told Phyllis we would definitely make it to the end, but it was only a matter of whether it would be in the boat or our bloated bodies floating the rest of the way! We came across a large flock of Buzzards eating a big fish and eyeing us a little too closely! Maybe they knew something we didn’t? Hopefully not! I really regretted my joke at this point! We passed them by and continued on toward the city of Chattanooga! Our adventure had begun!