The Cruise: Elk River is a shallow river at the chosen launch site, it looks alot like the river at Chillicothe during the 2007 hoverally most of the time. On April 12 the cruise will start at the boat ramp on Veto road just south of Prospect Tennessee.

This cruise will be approximately 80 miles confirmed round trip. On my twin engine 4 stroke craft loaded with two adults, a chainsaw, picnic lunch, and 12 gallons of fuel, it took me 11 gallons Round trip and two hours to run one way non-stop. I figure it'll be a nice cruise lasting the better part of a day with break stops each way. The stretch of river has several old broken through mill dams that we will ride through and the terrain and scenery changes about halfway up the run pretty drastically. The turnaround point will be Harms Dam (an old concrete dam) just barely downstream of Fayettville Tennessee. Richland creek branches off of Elk River and is hoverable if time permits that ends with an old rock layed mill dam about 2 miles from the mouth of the creek, this is just about 10-15 minutes upstream of the cruise launch site. Wheeler Dam on the Tennessee River affects the water level just 6 miles downstream, if the water hasn't been raised yet for summer watersports at the time of the cruise, there will be massive mudflats 8 miles downstream of launch site.

Accomodations: Mill Creek Campground is the closest place to stay to this launch site, it is just across the Alabama Tennessee state line about 2 miles south of the launch site on the same road. Click on this link to the campground website. Contact the campground at (256) 732-3686 and let them know that you're going to be with the hovercraft group. If 10 hoverer's stay at the campground the camping rate will be $16.00 per night and we'll get the pavillion Saturday night the 12th for free.

Athens, Alabama is the closest city which has hotels, lots of dining options, Tractor Supply, Lowes, Walmart, basically anything you'd need for supplies or emergency breakdowns and is 18 minutes south of launch site.

I can probably arrange for a truck to haul hoverer's gas cans to the turn around point if necessary, in between access to the river will be very minimal. In case of breakdown and recovery needed I can gain access to 4 or 5 points along the way either by bridge or farmer acquaintence. I have a 4wd that I'll offer to pull your recovery trailer to wherever practically close for you if your worried about pulling with a car.

Contacts:
Stephen Pepper is our local HCA host. You can contact Stephen or Natalee Pepper at (256) 423-3004 to RSVP please.

Directions: Click on the Google map. Note: the river does not show up unless you switch to Satellite mode.

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