Day 22: From one lake to another…

Richard is getting spoiled! He had french toast, bacon and scrambled eggs for breakfast. He and Donna and his brother in law, Paul ate at Shoney’s again for breakfast. Shoney’s seems to be the only restaurant in the area.

Paul drove in from Atlanta late on Friday to meet up with Richard and Donna. The three of them then drove down to the dam to look at how close he could get to the dam and to plan their route for the portage. There was a marina near the dam, so Richard figured that he could get out at the marina and portage around the dam.

While they were up scouting the dam, they went into the visitor’s center and met Chuck Treywick, an Alabama Power employee who was on site to oversee some work that was being done on the dam. Chuck gave Richard a map of all of the hydroelectric power plants on the Coosa river and visited with Richard, Donna and Paul for a few minutes. Richard was surprised at the size of Lay Dam – he said it was the biggest, widest dam on the river that he’s encountered so far on this trip. The dam has 26 floodgates and makes Buford Dam look like Morgan Falls dam.

During their visit, Chuck also told them about another gentlemen, Don Brown who was restoring an old gristmill along a nearby creek. Don is planning to restore the gristmill to its original state. He is looking at putting a turbine on the water wheel to generate electricity. He has been discussing the options for the turbine and generator with Hoke Thomas who lives off of the South River. Richard was surprised to hear this – he had met Hoke last year during his trip on the Yellow, Ocumulgee, Altmaha river tip and then again on his South River trip.  Hoke owns a mill and some property down along the South River. Hoke and Don are working together to try to find a turbine that will fit in the small space of Don’s grist mill.

During their visit with Don, he also took Paul and Richard on a tour of the mill and the surrounding property. Richard commented that Don is doing a beautiful job of restoring the mill and that he’s planning to include a blacksmith shop on the property around the restored mill.

After visiting with Don for over an hour, Richard, Paul and Donna returned to Bozo’s so Richard could get back on the water. Richard paddled hard for 2 hours to cover the 7 remaining miles on Lay Lake to reach the dam. He took out at the marina near the dam and Donna and Paul portaged him around the dam to Lake Mitchell, which is the waterway that continues south just below the dam. At this point, Paul decided to head back to Atlanta. Donna was not in a hurry to get home, so she opted to stay another night and help Richard with his next portage – Lake Mitchell Dam on Sunday.

Richard described the day as cool in the morning, there was not a cloud in the sky all day. His skin is continuing to get darker and his hat is beginning to fade. His navy blue Current Designs t-shirt is taking a beating. It is turning a fuzzy, pale blue.

After portaging Lay Dam, Richard paddled 9 more miles and took out for the day at beautiful park on the lake. He described Lake Mitchell as a small lake – only 14 miles long. There are only about 100 houses on the lake and not a lot of shoreline. The lake is absolutely gorgeous – he said it’s probably the most scenic and beautiful lake that he’s paddled on this trip. He described huge mountains of solid rock that form islands in the middle of the lake. One of the islands was almost a mile long and the edges of the rock descend sharply down into the water. He described paddling through the lake was like paddling with mountains on either side of him – the banks were 300 feet straight up both sides of the lake at times during his paddle. The scenery was so beautiful that he took more pictures on this stretch of lake than he’s taken on all of the other lakes. I’m sure we will be amazed at the pictures from this part of his trip – they sound like a real treat!

Richard and Donna ate dinner again at the Shoney’s restaurant. Saturday night, they were treated to prime rib and more deviled stuffed crab on the buffet. On Sunday, he plans to paddle the remaining 5 miles on Lake Mitchell and then his sister, Donna will assist him in portaging around Mitchell dam. Then she will head back to Atlanta. His last dam to portage is Jordan dam. Someone from Alabama Power should be available to assist him with this last portage. All of the remaining dams on the river are operated by the Army Corps of Engineers and they all provide the ability to lock through the dam.