Today is our last day on Kentucky Lake (Tennessee River) as we will turn off into the Tombigbee Waterway to Mobile, Alabama near the end of the day. The navigable portion of the Tennessee River (map at right, from Wikipedia) is approximately 652 miles so we will be travelling on only a small portion of the river. From its mouth on the Ohio River it goes largely south across Tennessee to cut across the very northeaster corner of Mississippi and then across northern Alabama. The river is the heavy blue line and the drainage basin is lighter beige. It then goes back into Tennessee to just east of Knoxville where it is no longer continuously navigable.
The trip for today was 55.9 miles up the Tennessee River and was the same pretty scenery as we have had since leaving New Johnsonville two days ago, including yet another sunrise over the Tennessee River. The picture at the left was taken just after entering the river from our marina near Clifton, TN. We had planned on about 8 hours of travel time plus additional time for the one lock today so once again an early start seemed advisable.
However, today was another one of those days with some unusual sights. My personal favorite for today was this "landlocked" tow boat in the picture at the right. It was high and dry at a barge and tow boat repair facility, and it must have floated up there during a flood (?). It looked like it needed more than a little repair before it could ever be used again.
Another new sight was this gravel dredge moving at less than 1 mph up the river (picture at left). The tall structure in the center sorts the gravel as it is dredged up off the river bottom. The gravel is sorted into different size ranges that are then carried in chutes down to the surrounding barges. I am a little surprised that they are allowed to do this since normal "grudging" operations stir up a lot of fine sediment that can be harmful to aquatic life when it settles out on the bottom (e.g. cover fish eggs and food supply). This operation seemed not to produce a "cloud" of such sediment.
There were very few houses along the river, but these had a marvelous view from on top of these cliffs. You can also see some steam rising from the water in the early morning cool air.
After about 40 miles we went past a sign on the west side of the river announcing the Shiloh National Military Park. Along the river today all that we could see was a peaceful treed shoreline. If time permits, we hope to visit the park by land in the next couple of days. During the two day battle, The North had several gunboats during the battle that bombarded the Confederate troops at night. There were also paddle wheel boats that had originally ferried Grant's troops up river to this location. The paddle wheelers also played a pivotal role during the night after the bitter battles on the first day that were generally a big victory for the South. During the night, the paddle wheelers ferried about thirteen thousand troops across the river to reinforce Grant's beleaguered troops. This helped turn the tide on the second and final day of the battle. Cruising past the serene (today) shoreline it was hard to imagine what had happened here over 150 years ago.
About 8.7 miles from our destination we reached the Pickwick Landing Lock and Dam. For the 5 miles below the dam the current had continued to increase until it was over 2 mph as we reached the lock. We were joined for a short wait by two additional Loop boats ("Thanks Dad" on the left in the picture and "Charis"). With a 55 foot lift this large lock chamber was very impressive when the gates closed. Perhaps it was due to the size/volume of the chamber, but the lock took a very long time to fill.
About 6 miles later we came to an area where the states of Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi come together. Unlike on the major highways, there were no "Welcome Centers" or even signs for that matter...
One mile later we turned west into what looked like just a small flooded stream valley, but it was the start of the Tombigbee Waterway that ends in Mobile Bay on the Gulf Coast of Alabama. So, (pun intended) it is all downhill from here. In a "mere" 450 miles we will be at Mobile, Alabama and back in salt water for the first time since the Hudson River just upriver from New York City.
After less than a half mile in the Tombigbee Waterway we reached our destination of the Grand Harbor Marina and Resort. It was about 4:30 pm when we docked at the fuel dock. We added 198.5 gallons of diesel fuel and had a pump out before we got docked in our slip just after 5:00 pm. As usual, we were very tired, but once again we saw lots of new (and old) sights.
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