Less than a decade after the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency first began making plans for a water trail through the state, the Tennessee Boating Trail became a reality. Beginning in Knoxville, the eastern most portion of the trail, you can cruise the Tennessee River to Chattanooga, then proceed through northern Alabama, the northeast corner of Mississippi, back into Tennessee and up into southern Kentucky, eventually reaching the Cumberland River via Kentucky Lake and a canal linking it to Lake Barkley and, thence, the Cumberland River system. From here, you can continue your cruise South through Clarksville, Nashville and points slightly East – in all, an 800-mile boating trail along rivers and other waterways that can accommodate boats as large as 100-footers

Of course, these rivers and waterways have been in existence for a long time. What wasn't in place were sufficient facilities for transient boaters – docks with water, electricity and pump-out equipment – and, in some places, sufficient water depth. Thus it was that The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, with help from the federal Boating Infrastructure Grant program (BIG), private marinas, state parks and municipal governments worked together to get the job done. Transient facilities were added and channels dredged until, with last year's completion of dedicated transient facilities at Harpeth Shoals Marina on the Cumberland River north of Nashville, the Tennessee Boating Trail was finally completed.

In practical terms, this means that if you cruise the Tennessee Boating Trail at a comfortable trawler speed, you will come to a commercial marina and/or transient docking facility no more than every six hours, an easy day's trip.

Note that Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley also serve the Great Loop, making the Tennessee Boating Trail easily accessible for Great Loop cruisers as well as those who keep a boat on trail waterways or who elect to trailer in a boat from other locales.

– Linda Hoff