Hiwassee Camp, Hike, and Float

15 TTA folks spent the weekend at Hiwassee/Ocoee State Park. We camped at Group camp 6, with a few ladies at another campsite and one at another park. I didn't get there until Friday evening after work. just in time to see everyone arriving at the boat ramp after a float on the Hiwassee River. The water was flowing fast and the first ones at the ramp stood out in the water to catch any that couldn't get stopped. Everyone made it in safe. We had a wonderful dinner at camp with everyone's 

contributions, with Miss Garnett's brown sugar chess pie, and Marcia's huckleberry crumb cake for dessert. Yummy! We had a real nice campfire until the thunderstorm rained it out. 

Saturday started nice and clear for the Ocoee raft trip. Someone else will have to tell that story because I went hiking with Joan, Jane and Debbie on the Oswald Dome Trail. It was cool under the canopy of trees. We had some nice views, and had our lunch at the towers in the shade with birds singing and bees buzzing. Saw some nice late summer flowers too. On the way back the temperature was rising so it felt good when we got a little wet from a thunder shower.  At the parking area there

were some nice classic cars in the parking lot with a group having lunch at the pavilion. 

We returned to camp and I jumped in the river to cool off. The current is too swift when the water gets released from the dam, but lots of folks were floating down the river, some on innertubes, some with PFDs, some just floating by.

Some of us went to the Visitors Center to see a snake presentation. Some of us were brave enough to touch the slimy scary things, and some of us weren’t that brave……Anyway there was a corn snake, a king snake, and a rat snake that was big enough to eat the annoying little girl that didn’t want to sit down and be quiet. Not that we wanted that to happen or anything.

Saturday evening we had dinner in Etowah at a nice Mexican restaurant. They had plenty of room for our big group and fed us really well.  Back at camp we had another nice campfire. Watched the stars put on a show and had a good time getting to know some new friends and reconnecting with some old friends. 

Sunday we were supposed to paddle 13 miles on the Ocoee, but the forecast put a damper on that so most folks headed for home. Joan, Marianne and I went to Parksville Lake to paddle until the storms rolled in. We put in at the Parksville boat ramp. It got warm out there on the lake so we found a good spot on the bank for lunch and a swim. We followed the lake shore and explored the inlets. We found a real nice church camp and thought it would be a nice place for a future TTA Annual meeting if we could have the meeting during warm weather. There's a boat ramp, dock, pontoons, canoes, and a big industrial kitchen, a big pavilion for outdoor dining. Something to think about.....

We beat the rain back to the boat ramp; we only got sprinkled on while loading the kayaks. We had a rude guy in the parking lot asking us to get out of his way so he could get his boat out of the water. We were in the process of loading a kayak into a vehicle, not dawdling, we got there first. Evidently some boaters do not think kayaks are boats deserving a spot on the ramp???

Joan had to get back home, so Marianne and I stopped at the Gondolier for a late lunch/early supper. Good pizza. 

Great weekend of fun with great people. 

Pictures:

Holly Park

Lora and I headed out after church for a little canoe trip. We put in at Holly Park on Soddy Lake and canoed out to the Pine Harbor marina. The water was busy with lots of boats and skiers, but we survived the challenge along with a few other kayakers that we saw.

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McGill Creek

Don Deakins led a hike on the newly build McGill Creek segment of the CT. We met at the Roaring Creek trailhead and loaded into Don’s truck to ride to the Brayton Mt road crossing to start our hike. 7 hikers. And one skunk that crossed our trail just as we were starting. We hiked to McGill Creek where the bridge will eventually be built. The Southern Trail Crew is now building trail from the Downey View Trailhead (off Leggett Rd) toward the creek. After a break at the creek, we hiked back, crossed Brayton Mt road and hiked the section back to Roaring Creek. Excellent trail building on this new segment! This is a beautiful hike.

Note from some of the hikers: Chiggers were collected on this hike.

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Sale Creek - Lee Pike

Lora and I put in at the Lee Pike boat ramp by Sale Creek Marina. We ended up doing around 5.3 miles. We went west along the lake and under the bridge. We came back along the North side of the lake. We got to see three different deer, lots of birds, and fish. Another great trip.

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Wisconsin 2016

Had a great family gathering in Wisconsin this year. We were celebrating Adams graduation from High School. Lots of adventures.

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More Pics:

Sequatchie River II

Today after church with family, Lora and I headed to the Sequatchie River. We got permission to put in at College Station Road. When putting in, the branch I grabbed for support broke and I gave myself a black eye. The adventure has started! We went up the river 3.25 miles only having to cut a few branches. We got out of the canoe a lot going across low spots. We got to see a good size buck, an otter, a raccoon, king fishers, an owl, a white heron and some ducks.

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Soddy Lake

Lora and I had a few hours, so we headed to Soddy Lake for a canoe trip. When we got to the park, we found that they were setting up for a jet ski race. I had never seen one of those before. They had their helmets on and were screaming around this course.

We went around the jet skis and under the bridge to the lake. We went as far as we could up each branch and then ate lunch. We got to pick some blackberries, saw lots of turtles, and birds.
Afterwards we went up Soddy Creek as far as that goes.

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Collins River Paddle

Today Sara joined Brandy, Jan, and us on the Collins river. We put in at the Dunlap campground on Hennessee Bridge Road in Rock Island. This is a nice campground right on the river with a good ramp.

As we went down stream we explored all the inlets and found some beautiful waterfalls, caves, and cascades. We got to see all sorts of birds. There were not many boats out, so it was a peaceful trip on a beautiful section of the river. We got out at the TWRA Kings landing boat ramp. We got in around 5.5 miles today. Great trip with some great people!

Pictures:

Sale Creek

Lora and I joined Brandy and Jan on Sale Creek for a paddling trip. It was a beautiful day on the water and not too many boats out. We put in at Patterson road and went up Sale Creek. We did a little exploring on Rock Creek and then took Sale Creek up as far as we could, almost to Coulterville road.

We had a little excitement on the way back as we passed some campers along side the creek. They were shooting bottle rockets and firecrackers off. We yelled to them and they stopped, but as we passed one of the men just couldn't resist and had to shoot a bottle rocket at me. We had a little come to Jesus meeting and then headed on our way. There really is nothing you can do with stupid!

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North Chickamauga Creek - Don

Lora McBride, Judy Varner, TC Varner, and I had an unusual but fun day on the water. We launched our boats at the new North Chickamauga Creek WMA Canoe / Kayak Launch near Northgate and almost immediately had to get in the water and drag our crafts over or around one log jam after another. In the first one forth to one half mile we spent more time in the water or on the bank than we did in the boats but it made for a day to remember.

I took lots of pictures of which 33 are posted below. If you get to the photo of the Barred Owl, look closely and you can see there are two owls in the picture.

Don's photos