Window Cliffs

 Today we headed over to window cliffs, a recreation area managed by Burgess Falls State Park. This is a 5 mile round-trip hike. We passed over eight Creek Crossing’s today, although two of them were dry. Be aware that it tree crossing eight there was a frayed cable and I ended up cutting my finger. Ouch. As mentioned and other reviews, the last part of the hike is the toughest when you have to climb back up out of the valley. It’s a beautiful hike through the woods, passing by the creek several times, as well as the steep cliffs until you get to the overlook where you can see the window cliffs made out of limestone. Then just a bit farther is an overlook to see the waterfall. Along the way, we saw a snake. A frog, bees, a bunny rabbit in about 20 people. We have done lots of hikes in Tennessee, but had never heard of this hike. I highly recommend it.

Kayak & Biking at Caney Fork

 My birthday started off with a beautiful view on the river. It was covered with fog, and, standing on a rock nearby was a heron.

We then went for an 11 mile bike ride on the road parallel to the river. It was a windy, up-and-down road with lots of beautiful views. 

once we got back to the campsite, Scotty took the truck to the end of our paddle route. I sat and waited at the put in with our boats and watched as the river started to increase from the dam release. We paddled a total of 9 miles, which typically is not a hard paddle but today Scotty’s shoulder was feeling slightly sore as this was his first paddle after his shoulder replacement. The river was not crowded, which is to be expected as it is a Thursday. We were very fortunate that at the end, a kind gentleman offered to help us, put the boats up on the racks I know Scotty appreciated it, or he would not have excepted his offer, back at the campsite Scotty put ice on his shoulder and I went to do a zoom meeting at the front of the campsite. We then headed out to dinner and went to. El Lago Mexican Restaurant. It’s located at center hill, marina and directly on the dock. We had a fantastic dinner I had grilled shrimp salad, and Scotty had grilled shrimp in a butter garlic sauce. We really enjoyed the chips and especially the great salsa and of course we had margaritas.

Long Branch Campground

We decided to take a quick camping trip over towards the candy Fork. We went for two reasons. One Scotty wanted to try out his shoulder on his first paddle two, it was my birthday. It’s only about 2 hours to the campground. This is at the top of my list for favorite campgrounds. We were in Lot 8, overlooking the river. Once settled, we had hamburgers for dinner.