Most manly moments

Apparently the portages around the 4 dams in the first part of our trip were never meant to be humanly possible. Some company wrote "portage spot" and put a dock leading out of the lakes as a public relations brownie point. They forgot to mention calderwood dam was a 2000 foot climb up a mountain, and the. 5 miles down a 2 lane no shoulder mountain highway - with a canoe on your head and 200 lbs of gear! The portage is there, just not possible. Luckily we had some friends Jeff Wadley and Charlie Wimmer meet us at the top and drive us down to the other side. But the 2000 ft climb with the gear almost left us buried in the hills. 

The tiny white dot on the right is the dock we pulled out of. Picture was taken from the end of the trailhead.

Our next portage around Chilhowee dam was only a quarter mile.... Of Not maintained rainforest bush! We had to blaze the entire trail with a machete to reach the bottom. We persevered with sweat and tear, all to leave us bursting in laughter at the insanity of the entirety. 

Spirits are high, clothes are certainly not dry, and we are simply loving the adventure. We are apparently the first ones to consecutively canoe and portage all 5 lakes to make the little tennessee river as far as anyone knows. Pretty manly I suppose. I need to go put nail polish all over Nolan's chigger bites now. Until next time