Old Hickory Lake in Tennessee

Trip Overview

Myself and two friends had bought our first kayaks last winter and wanted to get them wet... We put-in at the Burton Road lake access... There is a boat ramp, good parking and the grassy areas are level to the lake so it was fairly easy to enter the water...

My friend Bob and I had been on the lake the previous week and along with our third friend we wanted to retrace that route... The previous week we had put in at the Lagardo access, but it was much further from a particular creek we wanted to explore... We traveled about a quarter mile along the coastline and then under the Burton Road Bridge into an enclosed cove...

Proceeding across the cove (another quarter mile) we entered Spencer Creek (it roughly parallels Cooks Road)... The Creek wound lazily initially through marsh then through wooded and pasture land...

In the marsh area, we stopped to check on a mama Canadian Goose that we had seen the previous week sitting on a nest... She was still there, still sitting... Don't think she was too happy with us being there...

Travelling up Spencer Creek we saw several wood ducks and turtles... The creek was roughly 50 to 60 feet wide and 2 to 4 feet deep... At a point about two miles up the creek there was a rock covered shallow at which we got out and carried the boats over, but it was followed 100 yards up by another... So at the second shallow we decided to return back to our put-in... We made the mistake of paddling over the lower shallow and paid the price of some nice scrapes for it, but it was fun...

The trip all in all took about 3 hours...

Accommodations:

There is only a boat ramp and parking at this lake access...

Fees:

No Fees

Directions:

Take the I-40, Highway 109 exit and head north toward Gallatin... Turn left on Burton Road (about 2 miles past Lebanon Road)... If you cross the lake on a causeway you've gone too far... Turn around and take your first right... The access parking lot is on your right about 200 yards from highway 109...

Resources:

Check out the route on Google Earth