North Chickamauga Creek canoers and kayakers have a new place to begin – or end – their paddling excursions.
A pair of local Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency representatives completed a new launch into the creek last week off Longview Drive in Hixson, adjacent to the Harvest Grocery on Hixson Pike in an area once known as a homeless camp.
It’s the latest in a growing network of paddling put-ins along the creek, which snakes toward the Tennessee River after flowing off Mowbray Mountain.
“We’re really excited about the launch,” North Chickamauga Creek Conservancy President Tim Laramore said. “We had envisioned a launch on a piece of property we have just upstream from that. But TWRA just stepped in last year and put it all together. It’s great.”
The conservancy is eyeing additional put-ins upstream on land it owns that could give paddlers more options for where to begin and end their trips.
The conservancy’s popular Greenway Farms property is about an hour-long canoe trip south of the new put-in, depending on the speed of the water and the number of trees downed in the creek, Laramore said.
Conservancy volunteers periodically clear portions of the creek enough to allow paddlers through. There is a fine line they must walk between promoting recreational access to the creek and disrupting the habitat.
TWRA officials stressed in announcing the new canoe launch that removal or cutting of any trees along the left side of the bank to the center of the creek is prohibited. Downed trees slow water movement, slowing erosion on the banks and providing habitat for fish and waterfowl, said Greg Atchley, manager of the North Chickamauga Creek Wildlife Management Area for the TWRA.
The TWRA paid for the put-in, which features two ramps between the parking lot and the creek to help visitors as they pull their equipment toward the water.
Atchley and technician Fred Majors installed the launch themselves.
“Ultimately, any of the recreation users need to be thanking the hunters and fishers,” Atchley said. “It wasn’t the general recreational sportsman, because we don’t get money from canoes and kayakers.”
Atchley said the lumber used in the project was the primary cost. He added that a number of homeless people who once resided along the banks of the creek near the new launch now take shelter in an abandoned building on the other side of Hixson Pike.
Contact staff writer David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6249.