2026 Natchez Trace ride - Day 19 - Chatanooga and Chicamauga Battlefields

I got my Great Smoky Mountains photo

I woke up at 4:00 and could not go back to sleep. I just lay there resting, listening to my book. and playing Free Cell Solitaire. If I got up now it would be pitch black when I got up to the tower. I wouldn't be able to see a thing (foreshadowing).

Finally at about 5:30, I got up and finished packing. Last night I showered, changed clothes, and packed everything so I wouldn't make so much noise this morning. Nannette even did my laundry so absolutely everything I have is clean. I quietly carried everything out and put it on the bike then came back in to make myself a couple of eggs and toast. 

Last night I realized we still had two packs of bacon. So I cut them into quarters and used the pot-frying method to cook all of that bacon. We used some of it over our dinner salads but this morning I was amazed at how little bacon was left. Maybe about half of one pack. Maybe someone (besides me) had midnight munchies.  I snagged a few pieces for myself to eat with my breakfast. 

At about 6:15 I put the last of my stuff on the bike, ran through checks, and was pretty sure I had everything ready to go. I kissed my wife goodbye and she told me to drive safely. Then I got on the bike and headed up the road. 

Packed and ready to go - even have working headlights

I stopped to get a picture of the neighborhood sign

It was 64° and felt just a little cool. I had on my mesh jacket and was doing fine. There was a little bit of fog in the air but not too much. I took Highway 74 East until it met Highway 441 and then followed that into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. My goal was to get up to Kuwohi Overlook Tower.  I thought about trying to get there in time for a sunrise but I didn't really want to hike in the pitch black. 

This was my third ride of this road this week. Went all the way to the top and back a few days ago and now I'm going to ride all the way to the top again. I turned off the main highway on Kuwohi Road. It's 7 miles long and was a really nice little road. No sharp turns and pretty scenic vistas now and again when I got to mile 4 I started to see that we were ascending into the clouds. That didn't bode well. 

I spotted an elk on the way in

Beautiful views lower down

First little whisps of fog

Soon I was riding through a fairly thick fog and still had a couple of miles to go. When I reached the parking lot it was fully covered in fog and clouds. I saw a couple of people coming down the trail and asked them how the tower was and they said it was fully socked in. But I'd come all this way so I sucked it up and started the hike. 

2/3 of the way up the trail and still foggy

Still fog - I don't think this is where I could see the tower

The trail was pretty steep and I had to stop fairly often to take a break. I'm definitely not in the best shape but I'm also pretty stubborn and really wanted to get up there. I was about halfway up when the first Boy Scout passed me walking down and carrying a sleeping bag. Soon more boys came down, carrying bags. Some of them had pillows. A couple had big blankets. 

A short memory detour - when my son Kyle was a Scout we were going to go on an outing that we needed to hike 5 miles. One of his friends was named Ivan and Ivan's parents were in their late 40s when he was born. So he didn't get a whole lot of strenuous activities with his parents. Ivan showed up to the scout outing carrying a beanbag and a thin blanket. I'm not sure what would have happened if we let him try to carry that 5 miles in and out, but nothing good. We ran back to my house and I got him a sleeping bag, a small pillow, and something to carry it all in. Good memories. 

Anyway back to my hike and the Boy Scouts coming down. None of the sleeping bags were rolled up, several of the boys had them around their shoulders or tied around their waists. Two boys were just dragging their bags on the ground. I did comment that they needed to pick them up or they would destroy the bags and both boys said they didn't care. Finally after about 10 or 12 boys, I saw the scoutmaster walking down. He had on a backpack and his sleeping bag was tied nicely on the back. I asked how the sleepout went and he just shook his head and kept walking. I never saw another adult, which used to be required. I wonder just how far downhill scouting has gone. 

Finally I was getting near the top. I came around one corner and through the fog I could barely make out the tower. It was absolutely covered with clouds all around us. There was a bench to sit on so I thought I'd sit there rather than climb that last few hundred yards and then go up the big ramp to the top. Everybody coming down said there was nothing to see from the tower.  One group had waited up there for almost 2 hours since sunrise. I never saw a thing. After 15 minutes I turned around and started back down. It didn't even occur to me to get close enough to get a picture of the tower in the fog. 

Stock photo of Kuwohi tower

I was back down fairly quick and got on the bike to head down. I told several people about the tower being fogged in but nobody turned around, just like me. They all wanted to see for themselves. 

As I rode back out the fog slowly cleared at about the same place it had started on the way in, so nothing was going away as far as I could tell. But by the time I got back to the main road, there were beautiful views all around us. Just the very top of the mountain was socked in. 

I turned north and continued my ride up towards Pigeon Forge, Knoxville, and eventually Chattanooga. 

More beautiful views lower on the mountain

Empty roads and fun riding on my way out of the park

There are very few cars on the road this morning. I'd only seen four or five on my way up and was only seeing a few more on my way back down and out. But as I got closer to the north entrance, there were more and more cars until there was a fairly steady stream coming into the park from Gatlinburg. 

I skipped the visitor center and took the Gatlinburg bypass, which dropped me into Pigeon Forge. When we were here earlier this week, we barely got into Pigeon Forge before we stopped for lunch then headed right back out.  Riding all the way through Pigeon Forge was pretty eye-opening. There were theme restaurants everywhere, multiple roller coasters, and a tower with a gorilla climbing on it. It looks like it is meant to be visited by families with little children. That's probably the result of Dollywood being just outside the town. 

Is this a hotel?  King Kong is climbing the tower for some reson

When I was getting close to turning on the freeway, I started to see the Buc-ees signs.  I wasn't ready for lunch, but I was perfectly fine to pick up a sandwich to eat later. I gassed up the bike then went in and got a sliced brisket sandwich, a big breakfast burrito, an apple pie, and a large drink. I'm going to leave early in the morning to try to ride during the cool of the day so I figured a breakfast burrito would be fine to reheat in the morning. 

I got on Interstate 40 heading west towards Knoxville. The temperature had been steadily climbing and it was now in the upper 80s. I guess I rode through Knoxville, it was just interstate through semi-populated neighborhoods.  Eventually I left Interstate 40 to get on Interstate 75 towards Chattanooga. I was starting to cramp up so I pulled off the freeway for a break.   I pulled up Google Maps to see where John and the other riders had gotten to. To my surprise they were only about 5 miles away from me. They had come north and west up the Tail of the Dragon and then headed straight up to get on Interstate 40.   Very surreal to be that close after such different paths.

I got back on the freeway and continued riding toward Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Battlefield. By now the temperatures were in the upper 90s. I was taking fairly big drinks out of my hydration bag every 5 minutes or so but I still felt like I was dehydrating. There were a few clouds in the sky but the sun was just beating down on me. 

Finally the GPS led me to an off ramp. I was well under a quarter tank of gas but it was also close to 2:00 and I had lots of things I wanted to see so I just kept going. It felt like I was going through a few neighborhoods and on some pretty narrow roads when suddenly there was the battleground. I don't know if I came in the main way everyone else does but I got there. 

I parked in the shade then went into the visitor center. The ranger pointed out the various parts of the museum and said there would be a video in 10 minutes. There wasn't a whole lot to see but I was just so grateful for the cool air. The video is about 25 minutes long and there's no way to do the battle justice in that short of time so there was lots of abridging being done. 

Fascinating how many horses it took to pull a cannon and they had many cannons

Once that was done I asked the rangers where a picnic table with shade was and they pointed me across the street. I rode over and got my Buc-ees sandwich, some Gatorade, and my apple pie. Then I set up the tripod and took a picture of myself eating a picnic lunch. 

Perfect casual picnic - took about 6 tries to get that casual

After lunch I opened the National Park Service app on my phone and started the audio tour for this battlefield. I didn't find a commercial tour. The Shiloh and Vicksburg tours I bought had 40 or 50 audio segments. The national park only has eight. I rode slowly through the park at about 15 mph, looking at the various monuments and trying to get straight in my head where various events happened. The eight audio segments were helpful except they kept saying it happened to the north or happened to the east and I have no idea which direction was which. 

Audio spot 1 - the most important part is that I'm in the shade while listening

Beautiful roads to ride slowly on

Standing up to try to get some breeze

Finally had to take the helmet off.  Sweat was pouring down my neck

Every monument seems to have canons around them

The Georgia memorial, that's where Longstreet's core poured through a gap in the line

Looking toward Snodgrass hill where General Thomas made his stand, no shade out there

I was sitting listening to one of the audio tours when I received a text message from my daughter Klair.  I had shared my Google Maps location with her and she was texting to say that she was following me around the battlefield. I should have told her about the National Parks app and she could have listened to the same audio I was listening to. 

Eventually I reached the section of the battle where General Thomas led his core to halt the Confederate advance and save the whole army. He became known as the Rock of Chickamauga for those efforts. The next big part of the story took place when General Grant took over. But that happened over in another area called Lookout Mountain.  I pulled up Google Maps and tried to search for the Lookout Mountain battlefield but my phone kept exiting and popping up a message that said the phone was overheated and needed to cool down. That happened to me on another one of these battlefields. I stuck the phone in beside my hydration bag, which still has ice in it, and soon I was able to plan my route.  But as soon as the route was planned, Google Maps warned me that the battlefield would close shortly after I arrived so I needed to get hustling. 

The ride took me down through the heart of Chattanooga. It was hot, traffic was slow, and I didn't dare stop for gas. I kept drinking out of my hydration pack and eventually made it across town. Once I started up the side of Lookout Mountain, I was on a beautiful little road that climbed slowly up to the top. I was following three other motorcycles, all Harleys, and felt very cool. Near the top I turned into the battlefield and they kept riding. I made it to the entrance before they closed the gates, flashed my National Parks pass and I was in. 

The only view I could find of Lookout mountain

Looking down at Chatanooga from Lookout Mountain

Trying to show the slope

One of the confederate gun emplacements

Another view more west, this is where I planned my hotel

I didn't think to bring my Gatorade in with me, even though it was warm and I was soon thirsty, but I didn't care because it was quite a view.   General Grant's plan was for a part of his army to come over by Lookout Mountain and just pretend they were going to attack. They were just supposed to hold this part of the Confederates in place while the real attack took place somewhere else. But once General Hooker's division attacked the base of the mountain, they didn't stop. No one ordered the soldiers to climb the mountain and attack the Confederate army on top but they did and they won. It completely demoralized the Confederate army. They had every advantage and failed to stop the attack. 

From the top of Lookout Mountain I was able to look down and across at Chattanooga. Lookout Mountain is 1,500 feet above the ground surrounding the mountain. The Union troops had to climb 1,500 feet while being attacked by the other troops at the top. I was 1,500 feet above Chattanooga and could not imagine how someone would just climb up this thing and attack it. I walked around the battlefield area and took pictures and marveled at what those men had to do. 

After about 45 minutes I figured it was time to make plans for the rest of the day. It was almost 6:00. I still needed to get a hotel, dinner, and maybe make a bit of a start on tomorrow's ride. I sat on a bench in the shade looking out across Chattanooga and started looking for hotels. I probably could have ridden all the way to Nashville and gotten the same hotel with the rest of the group but I didn't see much point in that. The husbands would be up and gone super early in the morning and the wives wouldn't get up until it was time to go to the airport. 

I picked something about an hour down the freeway and found a nice quality inn for $70. That's the other thing, they're in a Hampton Inn for about $160. I'm a cheapskate. 

I booked my hotel, planned the route, then searched for a gas station along the route. Then I walked back out of the national battlefield, got on my bike, and headed down. I was kind of piddling along down the road, going slow, when I realized I had about 10 or 15 cars behind me, none of whom wanted to go down the road slow. So I twisted the throttle and picked up the pace. Took me about 10 minutes to get back down off the mountain and another 5 minutes to get to a Circle K. I gassed up, bought a cold Gatorade, a cold bottle of water, and a hot pretzel. The starch and salt sounded good to me. 

I drank about half the Gatorade, then dumped the cold water bottle over my evaporative vest and put it on. I got on the interstate and started heading northwest. The sun was getting low and the shade really helped but it was still over 100°. I drank more of my hydration bag and it was nearly empty by the time I pulled off to my hotel. 

I got checked in then pulled up Google Maps to see what there was to eat. There was a McDonald's, a Sonic, four or five barbecue places, and a whole bunch of Mexican restaurants. That was it for about 3 miles surrounding me. I'd had more than enough barbecue and Mexican over the last few days and wanted no more and neither McDonald's nor Sonic sounded very good. I sat grumbling for a few minutes then decided to get me a few McNuggets and some fries. I'm really not that hungry anyway. 

Back in my room I was eating my nuggets when my youngest daughter texted.  She wanted to know if my 7-year-old grandson could video call me and give me his Revolutionary War presentation. Of course I said yes.   He gave a great presentation but he had a bit of trouble remembering all the names. There was a George guy, and a Jeff guy, and a John, and then some corn guy.  But he did know Alexander Hamilton. It was pretty fun to listen to him. It was fun to see brothers poke their heads in every now and again. 

Now I've been working on the blog for about 45 minutes and getting close to done. I still need to do my 360 photos, then add photos to the blog and that will be done. 

My plan is to, very early in the morning, ride to St. Louis, if not a few hours beyond St. Louis, and stop before it gets hot. I really don't want another hot day like today. Yes I know I did this to myself because I really wanted to see these battlefields but I don't need to do it every single day. 

I'm over 4,000 miles on this trip and I still have at least 1,000 miles to go. I don't dare look at my credit card to see just how much this has all cost. But these are the go-go years of my retirement and my first big trip is worth splurging on. 

Daily Miles: 295

Total Miles: 4103

Total drive time: 97h17m