On Sunday, we decided to take a trip downriver, through the Chickamauga Lock, and on to downtown Chattanooga. We are thrilled that Rob's sister and brother-in-law are heading to Chattanooga in early October for a wedding! Our plan is to meet them on the riverfront and spend the day cruising the area. So....we decided that we would take a reconnaissance mission down to see where we could meet them. And, since we brought the boat up from Pickwick Lake back in April, we had not been back through a lock, so this was a great excuse to head that direction. Here is a quick picture of us approaching the lock...we got busy with locking through just after this, so not a lot of action shots to share.
We'll save the description of the locking process for another time, but we had no trouble at all...a piece of cake. This lock is not huge by river standards, being only 60' x 360', but it does still manage a fair bit of commercial barge traffic. But on this fine morning, we had it all to ourselves, and it was a painless trip - a total elevation change here of 53'.
Downtown Chattanooga is only about another 5 miles down river from the lock, so we were there in no time. We found the free dock wall, where you can dock for up to 4 hours at a time...this will likely be where we meet up in October. There is great access to downtown form this spot, and there is overnight marina space nearby as well.
After our pit-stop here for the puppies, we ventured off further down river for another 15 miles or so of very nice cruising. The weather started chasing us back by mid-afternoon, and we stopped back here for another pit-stop (just after a real gusher of a shower) and then headed home for a late dinner at our home dock. All-in-all a great day and a bunch of fun!
