Hatchee RIver at Highway 51

9-28-13

Hatchee River at HWY 51

            I was looking for a change of venue so decided to try the river to the north, the Hatchee. This river has the distinction of being the last “wild” river in West Tennessee. Meaning that it has never been dredged. I put in at the Highway 51 Bridge. The access is on the west side of the highway so I had to make a U turn to reach the large dirt parking area and the adjacent concrete boat ramp. The river appeared to be at a normal level. A gauge a short distance upstream read below 9 feet. Of course the last time I was here, the river was very high and flooding nearby fields.

            Temps were in the 80s with sunny skies. The river was the color of creamed coffee with a very high turbidity. There was no water visibility, and swirl of muddy water seemed to constantly rise from the river bottom. The Hatchee is about 300 feet across which is about three times the width of the Wolf, my usual river.

            The current was relatively slow compared to the Wolf. This made my progress upstream easier than I expected. Being a natural river, there were plenty of bends that I used to aide my movement upstream. I crossed the river channel constantly to find the calm water of the inside of each curve. I passed several fishing shacks most of which were abandoned, victims of the big flood a few years ago. I also passed under a train trestle and was surprised to see that it appeared to have been a rotating bridge at one time. I could see large gears now rusted in place. It made me wonder what type of river traffic was historically on the Hatchee to create the need for this special type of draw bridge.      The railroad crossed over an island and I continued on the left channel, which was actually my right since I was heading upstream.  Boats facing downstream determine the right and left banks of the river, an ancient law of the river.

            After the bridge, I passed a stream with a drainpipe pouring water at a quarter of its possible volume. A sign above read that it was treated water from the Covington waste treatment plant. The area had a stale odor to it but not fetid like one might expect.

            Most of the wildlife I saw consisted of turtles, red-eared sliders and a few soft-shelled turtles.  Bird life included king fishers, a great egret, turkey vultures, red tailed hawks, and plovers.  I stopped three times to rest on small sandbars. These were the only sand bars I saw here as most of the bank consisted of steep clay sides ranging from two to ten feet high. Because the Hatchee is a medium sized river, I had to share it with motorized boats. I only encountered one john boat with an out board engine. The operator was nice enough to throttle back the engine so I wouldn’t be swamped by his wake. He even asked me if I needed help. I think he was surprised to see someone paddling upstream.

            After four hours of paddling upstream, I reached a lagoon that was about three miles upstream of highway 51. I was surprised a couple of times by jumping carp and a large gar that rolled to the surface next to my boat. The prehistoric like fish was about half the length of my boat making it close to five feet long.  After exploring the area, I floated back downstream. I paused to take video of the red leaves of a small oak, the first tree I noticed to have changed to its fall colors.

On the return trip, I reached the island near the train trestle and tried to take the right channel. However, it was blocked near its outlet by a log jam. I turned back and took pictures of some of the cypress trees on the bank on the trip back to the main channel. I was disappointed that I was thwarted in my attempt to circumnavigate the small island. My failure turned out to be fortunate, because I also found the remains of a gar in a tree about three feet above the water that I had overlooked before. I saved the skull as a trophy of the day’s paddle.

My return trip took about two hours of constant paddling. Altogether, I paddled a total of six hours with three short stops. At least on the Hatchee, the travel formula is that it takes twice the time to paddle the same distance upstream as it does to paddle with the current downstream.