Melton Hill Dam Campground

Another foggy start to the day. I suppose to be expected when the water temperature is 58F and the air over it is 49F. Makes for some eerie pictures though. So today we turned around and went back downstream on the Clinch River, and are now anchored within sight of the Melton Hill Lock and Dam. We have reservations to be locked down tomorrow at 10am. While we retraced our track back from yesterday, we still saw or learned a few new things. First, the rowing tower in Oak Ridge I posted a photo of yesterday, is the UT Battelle Tower. It was built with a donation from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the City. The river here offers a nice calm channel for rowing club races, and I guess there are quite a few national races that are held here. There is also a very nice walking/biking path along the river front. Also, something we did not see coming upstream (we were looking for a spot to anchor and were to close to the shore to see over the trees), this time we saw a building with a dome top. Doing a little more investigation, we learned that this is the ORNL (Oak Ridge National Laboratory) Energy Systems Test Complex. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any more information on this particular building. While the Clinch and Emory Rivers wind back and forth around much of the land in this area, it is all part of the Laboratory grounds and has a lot of history with the Manhattan Project. In fact, a good portion of the shore on the north side of the Clinch River, from Oak Ridge to Kingston, has Government no tress passing signs posted. Arriving at the Melton Hill Lock and Dam late this afternoon, Sunbeam anchored in a cove close by, while Mystery Girl anchored just off shore of the Milton Hill Campground. I "docked" C-Traveler next to the campground in very shallow water along the campground shore walkway. (There is a low metal pipe railing to tie up to, but with only 3' of water, it's likely meant for shallow draft boats, which we are. 🙂 Rosanne enjoyed walking while I did a little kayaking. Then we went to find a geocache. After supper, we moved about 50 yards off shore to anchor.Read more