CHEROKEE LAKE SCENES

I was proud of Shade today.   She was perfect in every way.

She stayed right beside me on the boat all day and would occasionally walk to the bow for a look around  and return back to me.  When I would interview a fisherman, she would sit pretty beside the boat's tower and just watch.  The fishermen love her and comment on how well trained she is.  I tell em, "she has me trained."  One guy in his boat yelled, "hello Shade" and waved.  I was thinking to myself that , "hey, I'm here too."  Fishermen remember Shade's name but can't remember mine.  Don't figure!

Something became apparent to me this afternoon after an hour on the lake.  That something was that my attitude was uplifted and I was happier than normal.  I mean, I'm happy all the time but I was experiencing an elevated sensation of happiness.  It's the lake.  The water is low but its blue.  It looks clean.  The sun strikes it and the color deepens with enhanced reflective qualities.  The houses on the shoreline are few in many areas and there are large quantities of tall trees.  Douglas Lake is all privately owned with houses on every foot of the muddy shorelines.  Even the water appears muddy because the reflection of the muddy shore in the water turns it coffee color.  I guess a year of floating on that muck caused a negative affect on my delicate, sensitive mind.

Now, don't get the idea I'm in love with Cherokee Lake.  That's far from the truth but , I have learned to have an appreciation for its better qualities.  I've decided that I'd rather look at rocky shorelines rather than mud.

Its too early to speak of the animal populations.  I have seen a total of 8 bald eagles on the lake in two days on two different areas.  I've seen many more on Douglas Lake in that period of time but, Douglas is narrow and long where Cherokee is sprawling and meandering as well as long.  There is more area for eagles to inhabit.  They naturally would be harder to find.   On Douglas, eagles have to sit in trees on two shorelines.  On Cherokee they have a hundred islands and multiple shorelines that run in all directions.  I'll find em though.

The temperature has warmed up a lot.  I took off the coveralls I've been wearing.  Come on Summer!

No - No treat!

Believe it or not - I had my teeth with me and I made my favorite sandwich.  It was time for a break and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  My mouth was salivating.  I saw a little cove with a shale beech and put the boat on it for a little land break.

This was a really pretty spot.  Shade jumped out and immediately started investigating.  She, unlike any dog I ever had, will not go far from me.  She never lets me out of her sight.

I pulled the sandwich out of the bag and smelled the rich, creamy peanut butter when I opened the sandwich bag.  Yum!  I took a bite and started to chew when the lower denture stuck to the peanut butter in my mouth and lifted off my gums.  I pushed the denture back down but it wouldn't stay.  I was infuriated and spit the teeth and gucky peanut butter and jelly mess out on the shoreline sand and tossed the sandwich after it.  I followed Shade up the beech.

"Shade - come on - lets get out a here!"

"Come on sweetheart - Good Girl, Good Girl!"

I decided to take a look past the edge of the woods where the water line "should" be.

Well, there's the obligatory camping junk.  There's not too much of it though.  I wonder what happens if someone else camps here and uses this stuff before the owners arrive an hour later.  

Well, well - this is refreshing.  The fire was small and the protective, surrounding stones laid out in a small, tight circle.  Nice.  Usually there's a Inca temple size pile of rocks.

The fan is a nice touch.  I mean, ya can't get air conditioning out here.  We headed for the boat.  The camp site wasn't too bad.  I hate to see anything out here but, this site was better than most.  It looks like they carried their garbage out with them also.

I spoke too soon.  And, whats with the water bottles?  I guess they're disposed of correctly as long as they lay in one particular, designated spot.

Why not just toss this stuff on the boat and leave with it?  Disgusting!  Its slobs like this that make it bad for everyone.  Example:  If I were TVA and ran this lake, I'd put it off limits to camping for this one, simple reason - garbage.  People need monitored and regulated.  They complain and gripe over regulation but its obvious they can't regulate themselves. 

This whole stop only took twenty minutes.  Its good to get feet on solid ground after about four hours.  We headed out to complete the rest of our run.

  The rest of the day went smoothly.  We'll be up at Beech Creek and the John Sevier Reservoir tomorrow morning.  It should be a nice morning on the water that I'm looking forward to.

I hope you saw something kind of pretty in this entry.  The canoe is coming out the next day off and I think Indian Boundary Lake will be the destination.  We'll see how the weather holds.  Thanks for looking in.  See ya --

FIRST OFFICIAL DAY ON JOHN SEVIER AND A BUFFLEHEAD

What, you ask?

I really liked the reflection.  Couldn't resist a shot at these Holstein girls.

Today was the first time I could get the official state boat on John Sevier Reservoir.  I had to do some modifications to the boat to make it "shallow water" friendly.  I ran on the water for the afternoon shift and it was a great afternoon.  Its a long ride up there and back but it doesn't matter.  I love that waterway.  

Its really great how the colors emerge when the sun is bright.  The shoreline is beautiful up here with the water touching the earth where its supposed to.  The air was crisp and cold but I ignored it.  I turned right at the end of Beech Creek onto the Holston River and headed upstream along the right hand shoreline.  I am to run upstream as far as I can go - cross the river and return downstream on the opposite side to the dam.

I had the aluminum jon boat today and it proved to be an excellent ride for this type of water.  We, coworkers and myself, put a lot of work into this little aluminum boat and the effort is paying off.  Our combined efforts have made this a reliable little craft that can serve many purposes for our fisheries department.

I still think this little section of river is one of the prettiest pieces of water in Tennessee.   I fully intend to load the canoe with provisions in the Spring and paddle this thing as far upstream as that boat will go just to do it.

I noticed some beaver activity starting to show on the shoreline as I cruised along.  Then, all of a sudden, it really showed.  Wow!

Great Scott!  Look at the size of that tree, and the wood chips laying on the ground.  This must be a super beaver.  They are really active here.

These chomped trees are really huge.  I looked around and found where they stay.  I could see little slides from the shoreline down into log piles.

Yep - they're under all that wood.  At least some are under there.  I love it.  This is good to see.

Beavers are amazing critters!

I had gone as far upstream as I could go.  I ran into a shoal that crosses the expanse of the river.  I noticed something white and black in the water far ahead.  The thing was leaving a water trail behind it so it was a critter.  I have never seen one of these but here it is.

It was obvious that he didn't want me to get any closer.  He was in my path and we would just have to see what happened.  The current was flowing with determination and I cut off the engine and let the boat float downstream.  I was able to get a little closer but he cut toward the shoreline.  

I have never seen one of these little ducks.  He is a Bufflehead.  They aren't common around here, primarily staying West of these waters.  He's not really unique or rare either.  The little fellow was totally alone and "he" is a male.  There would be no communing with this guy as he evidently felt his space was invaded and he flew.

And, did he ever take off!  He is one fast duck.

He was a feathered rocket!  It was all I could do to swing the camera on him.  I wished I would have selected a faster shutter speed but, things are what they are.  These shots are the best I could do with him.

The temps were dropping with the sun.  The days are short and the cold comes fast.  It would be dark soon and time to get off the water.  I chugged on back to the Beech Creek boat ramp and loaded up.

I'm going to enjoy working on this water all Summer and I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities to photograph otter and beaver not to mention bald eagles, green herons and black crowned herons.  I'll do my best to get em for ya.  See ya again soon.  Thanks for the look see.

OUT OF THE MUD & ONTO THE ROCKS

Out of the Mud ---- Douglas Lake

On to the Rocks ---- Cherokee Lake

I gotta admit - those two lakes have nothing in common.  At least Cherokee has water in it and its actually blue water.

Today was my first day back on Cherokee Lake.  No more mud hole.  It feels good.  The first thing I noticed when I got the boat launched is the enormity of Cherokee.  Its a big lake.  I kid around about Douglas and Cherokee a lot but they are what they are.  I guess all bodies of water can't be pristine and gorgeous.  Out of the two of them I am more taken with Cherokee.  Both lakes are perilous to run on in Winter due to the draw down of water.  However, Douglas Lake has a mud bottom and if the boat or motor skeg drags across something its usually mud and damage is avoided.  Cherokee on the other hand has a rock bottom.  When something drags on the bottom, there's a fair chance of having to deal with damage control.  As a matter of fact I touched the bottom this afternoon.

I saw the water getting more shallow on the sonar as I drove along.  I was almost dead center in the lake.  That's the kicker about these lakes.  There are subsurface mountains that simply appear anywhere.   I cut the speed to three miles per hour and cruised in two feet of water.  I got myself hemmed into an area of very shallow water and actually had to back up to get enough depth to turn the boat and exit the same way I entered.  Last year this would have upset me.  This season it was just business as usual and I didn't give it a second thought.  I marked this shallow place on my GPS screen and went about my way.  I guess I learned to take it in stride.

If one stays in the river channel of the lake there is no danger of striking subsurface objects but, fishermen don't stay in the river channel. 

Cherokee is wide and islands pepper the large expanse of water.  They are attractive and usually contain their own little bays or inlets.  These inlets will vary in water depth greatly.  Some have depths of thirty feet during draw-down and some can't even be approached due to the shallow depths.  This keeps life interesting.

The disappointing aspect of Cherokee is the lack of animal life.  At least I didn't see it in 2011.  Douglas, on the other hand, is teaming with wildlife, especially on the upper river section at Rankin.  That's shore bird heaven.  Rankin isn't that far and I will be making many, many visits up there throughout the Summer.  I haven't spent an entire season on Cherokee and maybe I'll discover some wildlife secrets I overlooked last time I was here.  We'll see.  I did run into a couple friends today.

Two immature bald eagles.  OK - that's the only shot I'll post.  I saw one adult also.  Its really nice to see eagles on Cherokee as it will provide me with something to keep my eye out for.

Above:  The Caney Creek boat ramp

Cherokee has more wild country than Douglas too.  I'd think there would be more eagles up here on Cherokee but, I haven't seen them.  Of course I've only been on one section of the lake.  I'd really like to make a run to the upper river, if its passable.  

At least Cherokee has a bit of diversity in its shorelines.  There's that word diversity again.  When rocks are present - they're big ones.   Other shorelines consist of pure mud or shale.  My favorite below the water line shores are made of shale.  Shale is easy walking if the shore is not too steep.  Also, dogs can walk on shale easily.  Boulders are a chore and mud, well, mud is impossible.

Probably the joyful aspect of the lake change is that I won't have to look at brown, muddy water every day.  The water in Douglas runs muddy brown more often than not.  Cherokee's water is deep blue.

Anyway, that is one of the stages the show will play on throughout this coming Summer.  Actually, there are two stages with duel performances.  We'll be on the Holston River via Beech Creek at least three times every week.  Now, that's some nice water that I can't wait to get to.  So, with the introduction of the stage performance complete - I'll end this entry.  The players will be the animals encountered on a daily basis.  They'll be introduced as they perform on their outdoor stages.  I have to get back.  Catch ya next time.