Days 94 & 95 – Little Paint Rock Creek to Fort Loudoun Marina - October 8-9, 2011

We delayed our departure this morning by over an hour waiting for the fog to clear.  This has happened to us on each of the last few days (although it was perfectly clear on Sunday morning when we had no plans to go anywhere).

We locked up the Fort Loudoun Lock today.  This is the last lock we will have to lock up for quite awhile (from here on, we will be locking down until we reach the Gulf of Mexico).  The Fort Loudoun Lock is the second highest lock on the Tennessee River – the lock lifted us 72 feet from Watts Bar Lake to Fort Loudoun Lake.  As we exit the lock chamber into Fort Loudoun Lake, we are now at an elevation of 813 feet above sea level – the highest elevation we will be at on the entire Loop (this is 231 feet above the level of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron).

            Miles: 28.5      Bridges: 4        Locks: 1

fog at our anchorage in Little Paint Rock Creek

rock bluff along Watts Bar Lake

Highway I-75 crossing the river near the city of Loudon

beautiful Watts Bar Lake

Fort Loudoun Lock & Dam - you can see the doors of the lock chamber
on the far right of the picture

the lock chamber is being emptied and you can see the turbulence from
the discharge water in the middle of this picture