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 --