Shoal Creek, TN

Andrea has not paddled down a creek before, so we decided to go back to Shoal Creek at Iron City, TN and do the 8 mile trip on kayaks this weekend.

There are several reasons we chose Shoal Creek: their rates are really good, they are less than 2 hours away, they have lots of info on their website and they take you right to the creek and leave.  Then when you are done, they come down and get the boats, the whole time on the creek is all up to you.

The water was a little low, but we only had to drag our kayaks once at the very start of the trip.  Every other time I got stuck was because I paddled into shallow water.  Chandler pulled me out once, Matt the second time and Ben rammed me off a rock the last time.  So, yay family!

We got on the water around 10:15 and got back to the cars at 2:30, we stopped to play in the water 3-4 different times.

When the trip (we did Factory Creek to Iron City) you pass lots of houses and camps set up along the creek,  After about a mile, maybe 2, the banks get more steep and the creek is flanked by fields and woods.  There are rocky beaches and deep spots to pull over and take a dip.  We all got out to swim in one spot and there were gar EVERYWHERE.  We got back in and kept going!

The banks are dotted with turtles on logs, heron, dragonflies and butterflies that dive bomb at hats or heads, I was fluttered into more than once.  In the reeds are tadpoles and bullfrogs occasionally let loose with a 'bonk' that sounds like a banjo string badly out of tune.  Floating on your back, you can hear the clink of rocks as the current moves them along the creekbed.  Flashes of tiny silver fish, splashes from bigger fish out hunting, the stillness of gar in the dappled shade, it's a lovely way to spend a day!

Andrea is pretty sure she's a professional kayaker now.

I kept putting the camera in the water to see if I could get any fish.  There's one!

Caitlyn, Andrea's daughter, came too!

Another fish!

The water was surprisingly cold, I enjoyed our stops to take a dip.
I am not sure what's going on here, looks like the guys are staring off upstream while Chandler dramatically drowns.

Lots of these, we think baby dragonfly

Another one I have no idea what's going on, and I just took it yesterday.
Ben is pushing his 'yak upstream and Chandler is in the background looking for life sustaining grubs on that tiny island.  Where is her kayak?  hahaha!

Well, she found it.

Several heron sightings

The kids are really ready for some 'bigger' water, I am looking at a trip with some technical spots, like whitewater lite. 

Whew, barely made it through the riffles!

I was thrilled with my corkscrew pigtails.

And a couple quick shots from our sunset swim last week:

Matt had a 4 day weekend, he took Thursday off after a late night gig Wednesday.
We lazed around mostly, but managed to get in about 10 miles of walking and a minor grocery shopping trip.

Chan will likely be starting work full time in the next couple of weeks, so she and Ben are off to stay with Phoenix for a few days on an extended sleepover.  I am hoping to squeeze in one more trip with her next week, I knew August was the plan, but it got here so fast.

Roaming Around, Lost in the Woods 6/52

Chan and I found this deer skull.  We relocated it so that it will surprise Matt!

I never want to be bitten by a deer!!

The tree at the northeast  property line

that hill is SO STEEP.  One day I will have a camera that can show steep.

The above pic is the creek above the pic of the creek below, it was a long tumbly series of little falls, very pretty and quite loud!

I crossed the property line, having assumed Chan went back home, and went on down to the big creek.

bear!  Okay, it's just a rock, but I did get excited for a moment

I followed the creek a LONG way, thinking it was the other end of our creek and that I was meandering back into the little valley below the pasture.

Then I came out here:

ACK!  I was LOST.

It had been raining for a while at this point and my glasses were fogged.

I had deer skull germs on my hands and could not eat my snack

I had not brought water because Chan and I were planning to walk the 3/4 mile to the far end and mark the trail back to the first campsite.  We did that much, but I just HAD to see where the creek went.

Kuma (my favorite dog in the world) and I followed 4 wheeler trails for about a mile.

They have not been used in a while, trees were across in places.  Other places looked freshly mowed, so I don't know what's going on back there.

THIS is familiar, this is our creek.  I could just tell. So I followed it up a while.

UGH!  Nasty ass people.

This is the property line, I found out later-or at least where the fence crosses.

It's 10 feet from the redeck riviera setup-of course.

I went over it and started uphill.

As I was walking up and up and up, Chan appeared!  I was no longer lost, or else we both were.

I had gotten back on the property at the northwest corner!  That was a surprise.

We followed the old log road up and when I got near the top (see my soaked beet-red head below) I was trying to figure out where we had popped out.  There was one of my trail flags!  WOW.  Right into the new trail, awesome!

She had gone home, then headed back out to find me.  I have no IDEA what took her down to exactly where I was.  I was not scared, but I was still a little turned around on my location, I was soaked through from crossing creeks, I had no water or way to start a fire, not even a hat!  I did have my cell, so Matt knew I was 'somewhere north of the property line'.

I'd like to find out who owns that and see if we can walk on those 4 wheeler trails!  They were awesome!  And the creeks were huge, but it did rain hard yesterday, so they may be just as fickle as our own.

Anyway, I have seldom been so glad to see someone.

From there it was easy strolling along the new trail.  

We routed the trail to parallel the creek, because it's pretty. And I am determined to get a 3 mile loop at least.  hahaha

Back at the pasture, we enjoyed the clouds a while.  It had finally stopped raining!

Friday...

Ben was feeling a little low about not getting to spend time with friends who were gathering elsewhere today, so we planned lunch with Matt and arranged for him to hang out with Alex this afternoon until Matt was off work.

We headed out on time and were about 15 minutes from town and the front end of the van started shaking, then the brakes locked up all on their own.  I pulled off and called Matt and Katy to let them know we were not going to make it to town and then I called Beth.

This happened last week as well, but Chan was driving and after Beth kept the van for 2 days and they drove it all over the place with no repeat, it was decided that Chan may have been pressing the brake and the gas at the same time.  It's happened before.

I drove it 500 miles in the past week, all over Talledega NF just Wednesday.  No issue.

I had just gotten up to 50 MPH and my foot was no where near the brakes, in the 60 or so seconds it took me to get off the road at a safe spot, the whole front end was engulfed in smoke from the brakes.

I decided I would wait for the brakes to cool so I could drive it back home. 

We sat there a bit and then Ben asked if we could walk down the creek that was nearby, so we did that.

I slipped where Ben is standing and SMACKED my shin, which is now swollen and green.  LOL!!  It had JUST healed from a similar event 4 inches higher.  Don't worry, I put Arnica on it. (Update, one week later, still hurts.  Arnica is useless!)

Tornado damage!

Back at the van an hour later, I cranked it up and the ABS light was off and it was rolling along fine, so I pulled out onto the road and it very quickly-100 yards-shut itself down again.  So, back off the road and now calling AAA.  Last week, even though I had it towed, as soon as the brakes had cooled, it was fine.  So this was crappy.

UPDATE:
It was towed to one place near where I broke down, I did not trust what they told me, so I had it towed all the way to Beth 3 days later.  She replaced the entire braking system-lines, calipers, master cylinder and of course replaced all the fluid, bled the lines.  Over a thousand bucks, so I am hopeful that will fix the problem.