Long Hunter Paddle

My knees hurt. Apparently, that's what happens to 40-something-year-old knees when you go from inactivity to aggressive exercise and overdo it. Sidelined by tendonitis, I haven't really done much outdoors this month. But early this morning, I met up with Jimmy and paddled over on Percy Priest Sea. Launching from Long Hunter State Park, we headed south toward the Poole Knobs Recreation Area and executed a figure-8 loop around some of the islands. My intention was to photograph and waypoint any primitive campsites on the islands, but we wound up passing only two. One was the site where C and I camped back in March. The other was on the tip of a small island west of the Poole Knobs peninsula. Both are marked with thumbtacks in the track capture below, and clicking a tack will pull up a picture of the site. In all, we covered 6.7 miles, and we got to see a quiet area of Priest where neither of us had been.

⇒ Click here for a Picasa album of pictures from the trip. ⇒ Click here for a Picasa slideshow of pictures from the trip.

Long Hunter Paddle

Percy Priest Island Camp

C and I hit Percy Priest for some camping yesterday evening. We got a late start, arriving at Long Hunter State Park as the sun was going down, and we still had to paddle about a half-mile to get to our spot. The Corps of Engineers campsites around the lake are seasonal, but the primitive camping on the islands is open year-round on a first-come, first-serve basis. So with temps in the mid-70s on Saturday and only a low of 50 expected at night, we made a go of it, twilight canoeing and all. We had a simple camp with just a two-man backpacking tent and a fire. Dinner consisted of some Mountain House boil-and-stir, and dessert was all about the roasted marshmallows. We both slept like rocks and then rose early to pack up camp and explore the island. Light rain, however, convinced us to cut short our exploratory hike. Of course, by the time we loaded the canoe and paddled back to the boat launch, the rain had stopped. We chalked it up to fickle March weather and headed home.

⇒ Click here for a Picasa album of pictures from the trip. ⇒ Click here for a Picasa slideshow of pictures from the trip.

Percy Priest Island Hike

Long Hunter Scouting Trip

Early this morning, Jimmy and I launched out of Smith Springs Recreation Area and navigated Percy Priest Lake (a.k.a. Percy Priest Sea) in conjunction with Team Essence—middle Tennessee's premier militant sea-kayaking organization. Our roughly ten-mile paddle took us northeast up to Long Hunter State Park and then back again, the trip serving two purposes. First, I wanted to find out if the white bass bite resembled that of a year ago. Second, since Jimmy and I plan to hike overnight at Long Hunter in the next couple of weeks, we wanted to scout the primitive campsites at the park.

The bad news? No shad schools and white bass frenzies. But the good news was that the primitive sites offered shade, firewood, fire rings, and flat spots for pitching a tent. Judging by the state of the fire rings though, those campsites don't see a lot of traffic.

Click pictures to enlarge.

⇒ Click here for my Picasa web album of pictures from the trip. ⇒ Click here for Jimmy's Picasa web album of pictures from the trip.

Below is a GPS capture of our track, which includes a few waypointed pictures from the campsites. On the return trip, we took a much less direct route and toured the campgrounds over at Seven Points Recreation Area. Overall, boat traffic on the lake was minimal, but it was already starting to pick up for the holiday weekend by the time we were taking out around 11 a.m.

Long Hunter Scouting Trip


In addition to photographing and waypointing the two campsites, I also grabbed some video captures. In the clips below, the picture quality is much better with 720p (HD) selected, but load time is longer.

Percy Priest Overnight Trip

(or)
I Paddled the Length of Percy Priest.
What Have You Done?

I stole the alternate post title from Jimmy, who claims we're having t-shirts made up with the statement/question on front and back. The paddle itself was a long time coming since we planned the excursion way back in July of last year. We even went so far as to make two scouting runs (see Early Morning Priest Paddle and Percy Priest Scouting Trip).

With a window of nice weather and some weekday time during spring break, we finally decided that all systems were go. On Monday, we dropped off Jimmy's vehicle at the Percy Priest Visitor's Center next to the dam, and V drove us down to the Mona launch on the East Fork of the Stones River. Jimmy and I had both done dry runs with all our gear, so we were loaded up and ready to go in pretty short order. We launched at 1:30 and had in front of us a roughly 12-mile paddle and a 5:48 sunset.

Percy Priest Overnight Trip


DAY ONE

Even though we launched in the river, we were still paddling flat water since Percy Priest Lake backs up well into the Stones. Navigating the channel offered scenic views of long rocky bluffs and encounters with a lot of fishermen. Aside from the one crazy silver-haired man who kept ripping past us, apparently in a quest to speed-fish the Stones, the fishermen were friendly and curious about our destination. One of my favorite parts of the trip involved their incredulous looks and surprised comments when we mentioned we were headed to the dam.

Jimmy pushed the pace on day one, and it was a good thing he did. When we got to an area he calls "Dobbins Pass" (there was an unpleasant incident with a ski boat and shallow water...'nuff said), we found winter pool to be so low that we would have to portage to stay on our intended route. Determined to paddle the entire way, we instead detoured north over the tip of the adjacent island—an addition that tacked on about 2.5 miles to our daily trip. As a result, we got to our campsite on River's Bend Island later than planned. We had just enough twilight to haul out the kayaks and pitch tents, and we wound up gathering wood in the dark. Thank goodness for head lamps.

Click pictures to enlarge.



CAMP

Camp was a pretty simple affair—a couple of small tents, a couple of tripod stools, and a fire. Probably because it was off-season for campers, we found plenty of long lengths of drift wood right around our campsite and managed a better fire than I'd hoped. For dinner, we both went the Mountain House freeze-dried route, and we sat around the fire and talked till about 10. I slept better that night knowing that the longer portion of the trip was behind us.



Up before dawn the next morning, I stoked the camp fire coals, added some remaining wood to the firepit, and got water boiling for coffee. Just across the lake, two turkeys woke up with the sun and started gobbling back and forth for a good 15 minutes or more. I had fun listening to their conversation while I prepared my freeze-dried omelette in a bag. After some breakfast and a quick breakdown of camp, we buried the remaining coals and hit the water around 7:30 for our 10-mile leg.




DAY TWO

I set the pace on day two, feeling much better than I had the day before. Maybe it was the Advil Jimmy brought. Maybe it was the fact we only had ten more miles. For Jimmy though, I think attitude was just the opposite. His kayak, we found, suffered from a curved plastic skeg, and the entire trip, he had to paddle harder on the right to stay straight. After fifteen miles, he was already aggravated; the last ten just put salt in the wound. Clearly though, he earned the Determined Paddler Award and the nickname "One-Gun Jimmy," at least until his kayak is fixed.

We stopped a couple of times, once so Jimmy could filter some drinking water and again at the 171 bridge to grab a snack and filter more water. Nevertheless, we made good time, getting to the dam from our campsite in about three hours. We were able to see the dam just past the Anderson Recreation Area, and even though it was still three miles away, it added some incentive for the final push.

Regarding boat speeds, here are the totals: On day one, we paddled 14.5 miles in right at 5 hours (~2.9 mph). On day two, we paddled 10.5 miles in just under 3 hours (~3.5 mph). The latter speed is more indicative of what we've done with unloaded kayaks. Those numbers, of course, reflect stopped time as well. When moving, the Essences easily cruise between 4 and 5 mph.





GEAR NOTES

Below are a few observations about new gear and/or lessons about old gear...

• Because of the cold water temperature, I purchased an NRS Farmer John wetsuit for this trip. It did a great job on day one of keeping me warm, and the sleeveless design gave me plenty of room for shoulder rotation. Even though I didn't have the gumption to put on the cold, wet garment on day two, I think it will be a useful piece of gear for paddles in late fall, winter, and early spring.
• I also picked up two three-packs of Outdoor Products dry sacks. My larger dry bags work well for items like my tent, sleeping roll, and sleeping bag. The smaller dry sacks, however, make it much easier to organize, stow, and protect little items. My Perception Essence has a relatively small cargo hold just behind the cockpit, and these dry sacks fit into its portal without any fuss.
• I learned an important lesson about my Garmin 60CSx handheld GPS. To compress data when saving a track, it strips away time information. So when I saved our track for day one and then cleared my active track log on day two, I lost all the time info for day one. I should have simply reset the mile counter on day two. Lesson learned. Fortunately, Jimmy's Garmin did retain the info.
  

Percy Priest Scouting Trip

Team Essence launched around 6:30 a.m. for a scouting trip of the Rivers Bend and Poole Knobs islands on J. Percy Priest Lake. Putting in at the Long Hunter State Park boat ramp, we paddled southeast toward the islands under overcast skies. Because of storms that came through the previous night, paddling conditions were great. Cooler temps made for a pleasant round-trip right at 9 miles.

Beginning at the southern-most island (Poole Knobs), we searched out and documented the various campsites. We expected some trash since Jimmy had previously read this blog post about people leaving behind garbage on the islands. Well, we found it. The first site we visited looked like a dump with cans everywhere and litter scattered all back into the woods. When we return, we each should take a garbage bag to pack out some of the mess. The rest of the sites, however, weren't bad excepting one with a rusted-out grill turned over near water's edge.

Percy Priest Scouting Trip at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail: Geotagging Community

With the Everytrail map above, you can zoom in (just double-click) near the two islands, click individual waypoints, and a picture of each campsite will pop up. Either island held good sites, and we noted one in particular on the southern point of Poole Knobs Island and several others on the eastern portion of Rivers Bend Island. I imagine we'll be stopping at one of these locations when we paddle the length of Percy Priest next month.

In terms of wildlife sightings, we angered a lot of fishing herons, and we encountered a rustic group with a giant Confederate flag about to spend the weekend on Rivers Bend Island. On a final note, visitors at one site had apparently implemented a strategy found at this link, judging by the camp amenity hanging from a nearby tree.

 
 

Early Morning Priest Paddle

Team Essence hit J. Percy Priest Lake around 6:30 this morning and made a nearly 8-mile, mostly East-West loop that took us under Hobson Pike and around a couple of islands south of the bridge. In addition to getting some exercise, we also scouted a few campsites for an overnight trip planned from the East Fork of the Stones River up to Percy Priest.

Priest Paddle at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail: GPS Community

The first island was marked as a "restoration area," and the local birds had made good use of the no-human rule, setting up shop on one end in particular. These water birds were markedly similar to the ones we saw back on Old Hickory in June. At least three species were present, including Great Blue Herons and two others that I presumed to be in the heron family.

The second island, dubbed Mousetail Island according to this Corps of Engineers map, held three campsites, all of which looked like good spots. Each offered easy access from a kayak, and one had a fair amount of downed wood for a campfire. When the weather cools, I hope we can get over that way for some primitive camping. A scouting trip to the other nearby islands (Ponderosa, Rivers Bend, and Poole Knobs) might be in order within the next couple of weeks.

 
 
 
 

White Bass Redux

With little sleep the past two nights, I found it tough getting back out to Percy Priest this morning, but I somehow managed. The sun was already on the rise when I paddled out from the Smith Springs launch, and at first, nothing was happening top-side. After easing over to the adjacent cove and then paddling back toward the launch, I finally spotted the tell-tale swirls and splashes.

Today's bite was shorter and more scattered, indicating that the big bait schools were dissipated. Nonetheless, I hung in there, kept paddling to spots of activity, and managed to put nine more bass on a stringer. I think part of the success came from matching the baitfish. Yesterday, I noticed that the bass were feeding on tiny silver minnows a little over an inch long. So today, I used an extra small, silver Zara Spook. After getting pummeled by white bass for over an hour, it now shows the scars of battle.

 
 

Percy Priest White Bass Frenzy

Yesterday, a member of Team Essence, a middle-Tennessee sea-kayaking team, relayed to me the fact that the fish were jumping on Percy Priest. He'd been out for an early morning paddle near the Smith Springs Recreational Area, and fish had been breaking topwater for a good hour or more near the boat launch.

My guess was white bass feeding on shad, and so I headed over early this morning to have a look. Lately, I've made a few modifications to my Wilderness Systems Pamlico 100, including the installation of a couple of rear rod holders, and I was eager to see how everything worked.

I hit the water as the sun was coming up over the lake and took a couple of sunrise shots, one with the rod and one without. Though fishing was pretty slow in the cove, there were a few fish hitting topwater, and I hooked into a couple using a Yo-Zuri topwater plug. One was a decent largemouth, but unfortunately, both fish jumped, shook, and spat the lure near the boat.

 

I puttered along, fishing topwater and casting to the occasional splash. However, when I finally got out of the cove, I could see the real bite. In the next cove over, maybe a quarter-mile away, the white bass were tearing up the shad schools. You could see the topwater strikes going non-stop. I reeled in and put the kayak in high gear. When I got over to the action, this is what I saw all around me...


The white bass absolutely nailed the Yo-Zuri plug, and I had five or six on the stringer before I knew it. Somewhere in the frenzy, a white bass ran off with my lure, and I had to swap over to a Heddon topwater plug. The bass tagged this new lure just about as well. For nearly an hour, it was non-stop splashing and hooking up on top. At the tail end of the bite, as the white bass were going deeper, I caught two more on a silver spoon and decided to call it a day.

 

I wound up keeping thirteen whites and a couple of largemouth. But I missed four or five more, including two really nice largemouth bass. In my rush to get a lure back into the water, I often brought in the fish a little too green, and several shook loose near the boat as I was lifting them up.

Just as I started to paddle back, a sizable catfish that had to be 3 feet or longer did a porpoise roll about 20 feet from my yak. It freaked me out to see one that large come to the top. I put the spoon out in front of the fish, but it wasn't interested. Hooking into that thing would have been icing on the cake.

Great morning of fishing nonetheless, and to boot, I really liked the way my new holders kept the rods at an angle clear of my paddle stroke. I may have to look for that shad bite again tomorrow.

Kayak Is a Palindrome

My small, recreational kayaks are wide and stable, but these same features make them slow tubs when it comes to covering water. My kayak obsession has gradually morphed toward a need for speed, and now I'm also paddling a sleeker, longer yak that cuts through wind and waves more quickly.

Back on the 3rd, I took this sea kayak, a Perception Essence, out for its inaugural paddle. I and a friend put in at the Anderson Public Use Area near the beach and made about a 6-mile loop around three of the nearby islands.

Essence Maiden Voyage at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging

This morning, I took the kayak out for its second voyage and was most pleased with the effort. I paddled a loop of about 6 miles around several islands next to Long Hunter State Park. The wind was blowing just enough that I needed to feather my new paddle and deploy the kayak's skeg. The paddle was a peaceful one. I saw a few herons, several pairs of ducks, and some geese, and I took a picture of a lonely little cypress just off one of the islands. I also waypointed a nice, quaint camping spot where I may do an overnighter this summer.

Most pleased with the effort, indeed.

 

Long Hunter Loop at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging