We have decided to do a side trip leaving the southern travel on hold for a week. It’s been decided that we will anchor on the Tennessee River after the only lock of the Day. We will be heading to Chattanooga, AL passing into the Smoky Mountains. We have been to the Smokies in the past however that was a road trip. The goal of the day is getting past the Pickwick Lock and Dam at a whopping 55 ft lift to Pickwick Lake. The Lake of millionaire summer retreats.
The homes and cottages are definitely becoming more prominent along the shoreline on the Tennessee River heading to the lock. Most are built on stilts to protect from potential floods. The bluffs made out of limestone and carved from the millennia of the river are stunning. The tales they could tell. In some cases we can see the history. The limestone has given way and at least 3 homes, that we have seen, are swallowed up by the landslides. The Kentucky red soil called Crider soil covers one half million acres over 35 counties in the state and can be found with the limestone when the landslides occur. There are these trees that are hanging on by their roots in open water that resemble triangles. Left to their lonesome they stand picturesque on the shore with their booty showing. How do they survive the high waters?
It is difficult to show the scale of the size of these bluffs but if you find a boat or something to help with scale you can see just how tall they are. The massive houses seem small given the mega houses beside some. Having proximity to Nashville, Paducah and St. Louis this is an area that has some big estate properties.
It’s a cold one today too. We did keep the gen running for the heat all day. The overcast skies and slight wind kept the temps low. Tonight is will drop to 32 degrees, or 0 degrees C. We plan on running the heat until bed then snuggling in blankets til morning where Scott will start her up again.
We have met up with 3 other boats and will be locking through with them. The lock will be ready for us to head in once we are there. It’s a good day. Rounding the last bend in the river towards the lock another boat has joined in. Now we are a team of 5. Pickwick Lock is notorious for having delays so we are not unhappy about slow commercial traffic today. We also made it to the Pickwick Lock facebook page.
Pickwick: Facts & Figures
- Construction of Pickwick Landing Dam began in 1934 and was completed in 1938.
- The dam is 113 feet high and stretches nearly a mile and a half across the Tennessee River.
- Pickwick Dam is a hydroelectric facility. It has six generating units with a summer net dependable capacity of 247 megawatts. Net dependable capacity is the amount of power a dam can produce on an average day, minus the electricity used by the dam itself.
- When Pickwick Reservoir is full during the summer, it has nearly 490 miles of winding shoreline and 43,100 acres of water surface.
- Pickwick has a flood-storage capacity of 492,700 acre-feet.
- To maintain the water depth required for navigation, the minimum winter elevation for the reservoir is 408 feet. The typical summer operating range is between 413 and 414 feet.
- The dam has two locks: One measures 110-by-600 feet and the other 110-by-1,000 feet.
- Pickwick Landing Dam’s first turbine was the largest of its kind in the country when it was installed; its runner was more than 24 feet in diameter. New runners with a more efficient design were installed in the 1980s.
After the lock we have about 10 miles to go to the anchorage at mile marker 211 on the Tennessee River. It’s a large, deep anchorage tucked in a cove with hills and fall foliage around us. Protected from winds in all directions this is one of our favourites.
