Day #216 – Day Trip - Elizabethton

Gatlinburg TN

We worked 27 hours during our first week (last week) as work-campers.  We worked 20.5 hours this week.  That put us “ahead” by 7.5 hours.

Today, we drove over to Elizabethton.  Because we’ll be meeting Debbie and Linda there in a few days, we all wanted to know what to expect.

We found the Bee Cliff Cabins (http://www.beecliffcabins.com), where we will be staying.  A few cabins were scattered along the river, across from the Bee Cliffs; a few more were across the road.  There were cow pastures all around. 

The Watauga River is dependent on dams in the area for water.  The level rises and falls many feet each day, based on activity at the lower dam.  This makes for some interesting kayaking.

The TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) built two dams on the Watauga River in the Cherokee National Forest, one right above the other.  This created two lakes.  One is huge and covers the city of “old” Butler.  The folks moved themselves and their belongings to “new” Butler.  The smaller lake, Wilbur Lake, is situated between the two dams.  It’s small and beautiful, but very cold.  The water in that lake comes from the bottom of Watauga Lake, above the second dam.  If you look at a Google map, on “satellite” setting, for Wilbur Dam, this explanation will be more clear. 

We did not have time to find the outfitter (http://www.wataugakayak.com), but we did scout for put-in spots.  We both loved the smaller lake, but since it has 72 acres of surface area and is only 1.8 miles long, we figured we’d need to find more water.  Based on Internet information, we went in search of a “primitive” put-in on a remote corner of the larger lake.  A storm hit as we were climbing the mountain to the lake.  We had to detour around a downed tree to get to the dirt road that led to the put-in.  After we finally found it, we were very disappointed.  There was a large marina directly across the lake and many fancy houses along the lake’s edge.  While the road to the put-in, and the shore itself were primitive, that part of the lake was not for us.