My wife and I decided to venture out from our routine circuit of lakes. We decided to navigated part of the Cumberland River to Nashville, TN in our runabout.
We trailered our runabout to Gallatin, TN on Friday, and put in at the Laguardo State Ramp just south of Gallatin. Laguardo offers a reservable group picnic shelter, sand beach, picnic sites, playground, boat launch ramp. The only charge $4.00 per day for the ramp, and you can leave your boat/trailer overnight. The area is secured by a guard shack, so your stuff will be safe.
We messed around on Old Hickory Lake for several hours before we decided to venture to Nashville. Old Hickory Lake is approximately 25 miles upriver from Nashville. The lake extends approximately 97 miles to Cordell Hall Lock & Dam.
There are 8 marinas on the lake, so gas, and supplies are easily obtainable. There are many shallow areas on the lake, so for first time boaters on the lake, I recommend you stay in the shipping lanes. We accidentally ventured off course once, and depth went from nearly 60 feet to 3.5 feet in a matter of seconds.
There are many beautiful houses on the Old Hickory. We spent a lot of time at idle speed just admiring the houses.
Below is a picture of what’s left of Johnny Cash’s house after it burned down. His house apparently burned down in 2007. At the time it was owned by Berry Gibb of the Bee Gees, who had planned to restore it.
After spending several hours on the lake Friday afternoon, we decided we should start heading towards Nashville. We locked through the Old Hickory Lock. You can call ahead to the lockmaster to lock through, or there is a pull cord at the end of the lock you can pull to have them open the lock. It took us approximately 30 minutes to lock through.
Once we got through the lock we proceeded down the Cumberland River headed for Nashville. The lock is at mile marker 216.2. The Nashville Municipal Dock (where we were staying) is at mile marker 190.5. There are no marinas between Old Hickory and Nashville. There were two sites to see on this portion of our trip. Below is a picture of an airplane that someone decided to build into the cliff of the riverbank. Not sure why they did it, but it caught our attention. We also passed Opryland, which has the General Jackson river boat moored. They take regular excursions to downtown Nashville for hotel guests.
We arrived in Nashville early Friday Evening. The Nashville Municipal Dock allows transient dockers. You can call ahead and reserve your spot. Their rates are reasonable. They have a West bank dock, and an East bank dock. The West bank dock offers 30/50 amp service, as well as water. The East bank dock offers neither. The docks are right downtown at LP Field/Titan Stadium.
Once we were secured at the dock, we headed to our hotel to clean up, and head out on the town to have dinner and a few cocktails. If you enjoy music and food, you can find a ton of places downtown to enjoy. I will just post a few pictures, but needless to say, we had a great time on the town!
On Saturday, we decided to venture downriver from Nashville. We started out late morning. The first few miles of this section of the river was rather industrial. Once we got past Rock Harbor Marine (around mile marker 175), the river started to show us more of its natural beauty. There are many cliffs and bluffs in addition to wildlife to view on this portion of the trip.
At mile marker 158, we decided it was time to head back to Nashville. We fueled up at Riverview Marina for a slightly painful $3.50 per gallon. While proceed back to Nashville, we encounter a teenager on the front of his dad’s boat paddling downriver. The boat had the engine cover open. We went over to see if they needed help. Their boat would not start, and the owner stated he thought his fuel pump went out. We offered to tow 7-8 miles them back to their ramp, which they gladly accepted. It would have been a loooooong paddle for the poor kid!
Once we got back to Nashville we got cleaned up, and decided to take a shuttle out to Opryland Hotel. There we had a nice dinner, and strolled around their atrium to take in the sights.
Sunday morning we packed up and cast off for our return trip to Old Hickory Lake, and the end of our little journey. Overall it was a great trip.
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- Comments
-
|173.160.84.xxx |2010-01-27 17:39:21 laurence McCoyHello! from another adventurous spirit!!
I like d your story very much. My hu
sband and I would lik e to do exactly what you did. I am in the process of look
ing for a house for
rent while we dock th e boat at the Nashville Municipal Do
ck. In your ea rlier journey downstream did you happen to notice any river fron
t
properties for rent for one week or two? I thought it would be cool
to st
ay on t he river all the way....
Let me know,
Thank yo u and Regards,
Laure
nce McCoy
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|SAdministrator |2010-01-28 20:49:01 admin
Didn't recall much in the way of rental property. We stayed in a hotel downtow
n.
You can try vrbo. com maybe they have something in the area.
The ri ver fro
m Old Hickory to Nashville did not have alo t in the way of riverfront homes...
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