Lenoir City, TN to Guntersville, TN
Sadly, it is time to head back down the Tennessee River. Our first day cruising the Tennessee River was July 16, just one month into our journey. Here we are a couple months heading back down. The cruise all the way up was about 620 miles. Our down bound trip will be about 400 miles as we will head off on the Tenn Tom Waterway at Pickwick Lake. A couple of engagements have us on a bit of a schedule. We like the freedom of not having a schedule and in turn that has allowed us to experience some awesome cruising grounds. The upper Tennessee River should not be missed, many looper bypass this and they are truly missing out.
We waited for the fog to lift before leaving Fort Loudon Marina, in Lenoir City, TN. The lock is in eyesight of the marina and Bearcat – a tow boat was just locking through. We have run into Bearcat several times and learned that she runs between Chattanooga and Knoxville twice weekly. Tows have priority in the locks so we keep an eye out for her as well as others physically and on AIS (automatic identification system), so that we plan or lock throughs and wait the least amount of times on tows. AIS is a digital VHF radio-based transponder system, all commercial vessels are equipped with them and many pleasure craft. It identifies all boats with the transponder, tells you the vessels name, what type/size of vessel, and direction and speed the vessel is moving. It also transmits the same information about your vessel. It is an important tool that we use daily. It can be a lifesaver in bad weather conditions and serves as a wealth of information while cruising.
We encountered the Pinta replica at our marina fuel dock. This is our third encounter with the tour boat, and she was busy with many coming out so see her. From the looks, those explorers were brave people, not sure we would want to cruise on her outside of a good weather day on the rivers.
Our first day cruise would be 1 lock and 55 miles. It was a perfect cruising day with the temperature in the 70’s. A bit cool, but better than roasting. We returned to Blue Springs Marina, a very comfortable marina for us with a restaurant, easy docking, a boat ramp for Remy to swim from, and great diesel prices. After a swim for Remy, we all headed to the restaurant patio for dinner (yay! for Remy!). A steady crowd continued in that turned into a sea of orange and later as heard from our boat, a loud crowd rooting on their Tennessee Volunteers. The Volunteers did not prevail against the gators. (But my Cats did a week later!)
Although we didn’t need much fuel (we had filled here prior to our trip up and have gone 150 miles), we decided to fill up again with diesel prices at $2.99/gallon. We had one lock and 70 miles to traverse making it a long day.
We chose to stop at Island Cove Marina in Harrison, TN, just north of Chattanooga. Island Cove is the former home of Now or Never. We met a couple at Fort Loudon who knew our boat, the former owners, and docked with them there. We also had a comment on our FB page from another person who was acquainted with the former owners and our boat. She stands out a bit and is memorable because of her custom hard top that others don’t have. The closer we got, the crazier the water and boats.
We don’t like to cruise on weekends near a city and didn’t realize Watts Bar Lake would be so busy, but it was a Sunday and beautiful out. Island Cover is a nice marina, though not Remy approved (we didn’t find grass for over quarter mile! – she peed in the rocks!).
Chattanooga 
Chattanooga 
Downtown docks 
Chattanooga is filled with many nods to the river and boats
The following day we had a perfect cruise of 14 miles and one lock landing us in downtown Chattanooga. We just missed the iron man race by one day. It would not have been possible to motor into town that day but would have been great to be tied up and watch this amazing feat by crazy souls. We had the opportunity several times to tie up in downtown Louisville on the very docks that the race started from. By 4 am there would be hundreds if not several thousand racers lined up in front of our boats waiting to jump in the river for their 2.4-mile swim, to then peddle 112 miles followed by running a full marathon of 26.2 miles. Amazing!
We toured the Chattanooga Aquarium on the day we arrived. It sits on the riverfront and boasts two journeys to experience, the river and ocean journey. They’ve done a nice job curating their museum and we enjoyed the river journey more as it was more meaningful to us and the journey we are experiencing at the time.
Day two Chattanooga had us exploring the city by public transportation. It was obvious we are small town folk who do not have our mass transit skills honed in. We made our way to St. Elmo (thinking great steaks and nose burning horseradish cocktail sauce!) historic neighborhood (via a transfer station) to the base of Lookout Mountain to board the railroad incline car to take us to the top. The incline railroad is a 1 mile, 72.7% grade. There are two cars that do the trip and a switch about 1/3 of the way up.
A national historic landmark, the Incline Railway up historic Lookout Mountain is one of the world’s steepest passenger railways and has been in operation since 1895.
On top of Lookout Mountain 
See Rock City on top of Lookout Mountain!
We could have spent more time in Chattanooga, we have driven through tens of times but never stopped to “See Rock City” or go to Ruby Falls. It would be nice to stop next time driving through, continue our visit and make a great long weekend stop!
We found a corner joint for lunch and studied how to return to our boat via public transportation. The shuttle we took to and from the incline station was part of Chattanooga‘s free electric shuttle service. It was a nice service with four transfer stations and stops in between. Maybe a hidden treasure as there were not many riders on the shuttles, we rode in.
On our journey back to our boat, the bus transfer station was right beside the original Chattanooga Choo-Choo.
Chattanooga Choo-Choo won’t you choo-choo me home? Chattanooga, Chattanooga, get aboard. Chattanooga, Chattanooga, All aboard, Chattanooga, Chattanooga.
A tired, worn-down hotel, and the remains of all old rail cars and track 29 were there in addition to the terminal and gardens. The terminal looks grand on the outside, houses a restaurant and a couple shops, but too is a little worn from its grandiose days. Opened in 1909, the terminal welcomed thousands of travelers during the golden age of railroads. It closed in 1970. The Terminal station was the keystone to southern rail travel with all trains traveling south passing through Chattanooga. It became known as the spot “where the cotton meets the corn” since it was roughly the geographical boundary between farming regions of Southern Appalachia and the cotton plantations of the South.
The Glenn Miller Orchestra made the Chattanooga Choo-Choo a household name after their 1941 song was featured in the movie “Sun Valley Serenade”.
The outside is much nicer in appearance than the rest and we strolled through the Glenn Miller Gardens that are intertwined with the tracks. At one time there were fourteen tracks, that could serve seven different passenger platforms. It must have been something back in the day!
When we returned to the boat, we met gold loopers (1 lap around the loop!) who docked downtown on the lay along with us and enjoyed a 12-minute walk, an outside deck, at a chic little neighborhood pub for dinner. They shared some great looper intel including our destination for the next day.
We headed out the next day after a long walk and swim in the cement pond, a beautiful cement pond with a view, in a downtown park along the riverfront. There may have been a sign that said no pups, but we pretended not to see it and let this pup have fun. An on-going theme – she did not want to leave the water, she could never spend enough time in the water, but it was time to motor on.
Beautiful cement pond with killer view
Leaving after the fog lifted for a 38-mile run with one lock to a T-head dock at Shellmound State Park. No power or electric. But an incredible view of the river, mountains, Nickajack lock, a busy train track across the river that followed the river (David loves trains!), and a beautiful state park. We arrived early in the afternoon for our pup to enjoy a full afternoon of swimming and a beautiful evening. Our only complaint was all the bugs! First started off with tens of yellow jacket and then switched to hundreds of black gnatty things. We have screens in our back deck but gave up early and went below. It didn’t seem early as it was dark, dark by 7, now back in central time zone with a 6:30 sunset is for the birds. We’ll enjoy the earlier sunrise, but the evening was short. We were a bit tired and with not much to do, we all turned in prior to 9 and fell asleep quickly. The cool, crisp air. The quiet surroundings with only a train horn and rumble from time to time made for good sleeping. After feeling like we slept for hours, we awoke to see it was only 11 pm. That’s what we get for going to bed so early.
Remy got another swim in at 7 am as we let the fog burn off before heading down river. This time her mom had to go in and get her out. She had no interest in leaving her fishing post and boarding the boat for the next jaunt.
A beautiful, cool, long cruise from Shellmound to Guntersville was interrupted by little boats flying by us, over 20 boats in all in three different groups. We heard the hum of one and looked behind and they were overtaking us like Tennessee Somalian pirates ready to pounce. Zoom, Zoom, passing port and starboard, Zoom, Zoom and the interrupted engine roar as they took flight over our wake. Nine had passed and then the 10th was far behind of the first group.
As he (of course it was a male at the wheel) came up, he hit our wake hard, and then we saw him stop and turn around? The lady had been thrown out of the boat by the wake and was in the river. Oops! We slowed to make sure they didn’t need help as their fleet had keep running down river and were far ahead and the second fleet had not yet made the bend. The driver got the lady back in the boat, they lingered for a bit and then went flying by on our port, but very far away from our wake. We can only imagine the conversation that took place over the next day or two! Thankfully she looked as though she was fine but ticked, she even mustered a friendly wave! So much for their morning boat trip! The rest of the fleet came roaring by a bit later, continuing to fly through our wake. We motor around 9 knots, if they wouldn’t have been so close to us, they all could have taken our wake with ease.
Overboard! 
hitting the Now or Never wake
It was a long 67 mile run with one lock. The locks on the upper Tennessee have been very accommodating. Very little commercial traffic means we rarely had to wait. That was awesome. Leaving prior to 8 had us arriving around 3, it was an overcast day, and the temps were in the 70’s – perfect cruising weather.
We arrived Guntersville Marina to welcome waves where we will spend a few days catching up with our newfound friends from our last stay of 11 days, chores and projects, and visiting with our friend from home, Ed.
Cheers! D, T & R