Finding Johnny Cash, Cherokees, Rosboroughs and a Navy on the Beautiful Upper Tennessee

This was our 2nd time cruising on the Tennessee, the first being in 2019 when we did the Great Loop and took a side trip up to Chattanooga.  We returned this fall to attend a Rosborough Boat Rendezvous and cruise further up river from the city.

The Bluegrass Festival was mobbed.

 The Rendezvous attracted 15 boats from all over the east, and we docked adjacent to the Aquarium, which dominates the riverbank.  The event was a wonderful mix of socializing, cruising and exploring Chattanooga.  We found our go-to local ice cream parlor, listened to some great music at the Bluegrass Festival and walked to Southside and the historic train station made famous by Glenn Miller singing Chattanooga Choo Choo. 

Our Rosborough group - 1 of 2.

Our Rosborough group - 2 of 2.

                                                      

One of the Rendezvous cruises went 38 miles south to Nickajack Lake.  Most of the boats chose to dock at the park while Salty Paws and our good friends Otto and Anna on Vega choose the opposite side of the Lake to give us easier access via dinghy to Nickajack Cave, a place where nature and legend meet in a most unusual way.  

At dusk, the air comes alive as thousands of bats spiral from the cave mouth daily from April to early October as they sweep out across the river and landscape to feed.   Now, did we see thousands?  No, but we did see 100’s, and our view was limited in the darkening landscape.  We should have followed the local kayak guide and gone out to more open water with a larger view of the sky.

Even Tory kept a lookout for the bats, but we were still at least 30 minutes away from dusk.

Otto, Anna, Molly and I challenged the
 capacity of out little dinghy but we all did
 wear a life jacket and enjoyed an Old
Fashioned while waiting for the bats.

The cave is also famous for its part in reinvigorating the life and career of Johnny Cash. As Cash himself told the story, he drove to the Nickajack Cave in 1967 with the intent of ending his own life.  Cash was in despair and broken by addiction.  He crawled deep into the cave, and then his flashlight gave out, leaving him in total darkness.  After much contemplation, he felt the presence of God, telling him that it wasn’t his time.

Following a faint breeze, he was able to crawl back to the light and began  a new commitment to sobriety and faith.  He still had his relapses, but his redemption had started.  In 1968 he married June Carter, and the following year he began hosting his own show on ABC.

Anchored off ft. Loudoun with the mountains not that far away.

After the Rendezvous, Salty Paws and Sabbatical (Dan, Jeremy and their great dog Rufus) were the only boats that continued upstream.  Two days and three locks brought us to the Little Tennessee River that cuts southeast into the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains.  What a beautiful cruising ground!  We anchored off Fort Loudon Historical Park.

Fort Loudon.

The Park includes many walking trails and a replica of the 1757 British outpost.  At that time Britain and France were in a battle for dominance in North America.  Britain controlled the lands east of the Great Smoky Mountains, and France claimed lands west of the mountains.  The area between was Cherokee country. 

 The Cherokees were initially aligned with the British and fought bravely on their behalf.  Unfortunately, as always seems the case with Native Americans, misunderstanding and broken treaties led to the slow conquering of their lands and in less than 70 years the forced departure of most of the Cherokees on the Trail of Tears to Oklahoma.

Sequoyah in
the U.S. Capital.

Sharing the island with the Park is the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum.  Sequoyah was born in c. 1775, the son of Virginia fur trader and his Cherokee mother, who raised him in Tennessee country.   He grew to be an accomplished silversmith and painter and even served in the U.S. Army.  He became convinced that the key to the white man’s success was having a written language as it allowed for the retention and transmission of more knowledge than just relying on word of mouth.                                                                                                                                                                    Sequoyah spent 12 years experimenting by first developing pictographs for each word.  This proved too cumbersome.  Later in 1821, with the help of his 6-year old daughter, he identified 86 unique syllables in the Cherokee language and created a symbol for each.  His fellow Cherokees were initially skeptical of his efforts, but soon saw the benefits.  In fact, in less than a decade 90% of Cherokees were literate.  And, to think that the language was developed by someone who was not literate in any other language!

The Sequoia tree was named after a Sequoyah, and he was further honored by his statue being one of only 100 (2 from each state) that rest in the U,S, Capital Rotunda.  Oklahoma gave him that honor in 1917.

Sabbatical on the Little Tennessee. 

Salty Paws and Sabbatical then continued up the Little Tennessee into the foothills of the Smokies for as far as the river was passable.  In Addison to the beautiful scenery, we were also focused on the depth gauge as the last few miles were not covered by navigational aids or our chartplotters.  We also enjoyed watching the water temperature fall from 70 degrees to 62 degrees.

The end of navigable waters.

Unfortunately, due to a marina mix-up, Sabbatical was unable to get a slip at the Fort Loudon Marina that evening.  They decided to proceed back downriver while we stayed for our trip the next day upriver to Knoxville and the beginning of the Tennessee River.  

The next morning we covered the 45 miles to Knoxville in a couple of hours and were soon surrounded by Navy boats.

A typical Volunteer Navy boat.

Rather than guns and cannons, their only armaments were flagpoles all adorned with large orange flags.  You see, this was the Volunteer Navy in support of University of Tennessee football.  The stadium is close to the River, and the Vol Navy tailgates on boats  before the game begins.  The tradition began in 1962 when the UT broadcaster started traveling to games by boat to avoid traffic.  Now before each home game, hundreds of boats raft in groups of 8 to 12 boats off every dock on the waterfront.

Molly, Tory and I had to cruise by this gauntlet of boats to reach the headwaters of the Tennessee River, 5 miles away.  The only orange on board was one of my shirts and a glass.  I donned them both and was quickly self-enrolled in the Navy so we could safely pass.

The beginning of the Tennessee River is where the French Broad River and the Holston River meet.  The intersection wasn’t overly dramatic, but now we can say that we have been on every mile of the Tennessee River!

Molly and Tory in the Park.

Jeremy and Dan with our two boats
ready to go.

Two nights, three locks and almost 200 miles later we were back at the boat ramp in Chattanooga.  Dan helped us pullout, and we said our final goodbyes to Sabbatical.  After a nice walk through River Park, we trailered 150 miles to visit our daughter Elizabeth and family outside of Atlanta before returning to Maine.  

 Below are additional pictures from our cruise.

This is a typical Tennessee River lock, and it is filled with Rosboroughs.

Each lock seems to have either an adjacent nuclear or hydro-electric power plant run by the atennessee Valley Authority (TVA). 

Our trip down took us through New York and Pennsylvania, and seemingly thousands of trucks
destined for Canada were idled at truck stops as the shutdown closed the border crossings,

Salty Paws headed up the Little Tennessee River.

Molly is great at taking the wheel, and often affords me great napping opportunities while underway.

The moon and the anchor light on Sabbatical stand out as observed from Salty Paws.

Salty Paws and Vega trailered down to Chattanooga together from Otto and Anna’s home
in Webster, NY.  We used our boats as an RV outside of Columbus, OH.