My goal for this summer is to paddle our canoe 75 miles the entire length of Lake Guntersville from Nickajack Dam to Guntersville Dam in 7 days. To that end, I decided to use a surprise anniversary gift to Phyllis as an exploratory trip on Lake Guntersville since we both love the water. I rented a cabin right off the lake and we headed out Friday after work. After a nice restful evening in an amazing little place found through Vacation Rental By Owner we unloaded the canoe and began our paddle. After pulling away from the dock, we headed up river. I wanted to see if it really made a difference since the dams generally control the current. It really didn’t. Paddling up river was no harder than down, but this lake/river is HUGE! We paddled up to a small island covered with water birds and watched them for a little while. We also encountered a canoe full of teenagers from a nearby church camp that had paddles that were too short and a life jacket made for a 5 year old. They provided some entertainment and then we headed on across the lake. Just going across this massive water took about an hour and then we followed the far shore down around a point! We pulled in at a small cove and had a sandwich for lunch and then moved out again. Looking across the rest of the lake we saw our target, the Lake Guntersville State Park Campground. We had visited here in the summer to check it out, but I wanted to find it from the water. That paddle took another 2 hours! It is amazing how close things look on the water and how long it can take to get there when you are using a paddle. When we pulled up at the doc at the camp ground, our little boat was tiny beside the huge dock and a few other boats. We tied off and walked to the store at the campground! We had a nice snack of ice cream and then headed back across the lake. We went a little further down the shore before we cut over and explored the other bank. As we rounded the point we saw the tall red and white power towers that were a good land mark. They looked so close, but it took about an hour to get to them and across the lake. When we reached the other shore, we paddled on up to our boat ramp and rounded out our trip! We went about 10 miles total in about 8 hours. If I have it figured right that would be about our average day on our long expedition so I think we can handle it. It was an amazing day with my amazing wife and I can’t wait to hit the lake again. But we were only just beginning our anniversary weekend!!