Kayak to Nickajack Bat Cave

My friend Melissa had given me a gift certificate to a website where you can choose experiences around the country, and I’d been saving it for something good. I think I found it in our kayak trip with Chattanooga Guided Adventures in Tennessee.

This kayak trip starts close to sunset. After a safety lesson for all and a special instruction to Doug and I in the only tandem kayak that only Doug gets to steer (boo hiss), we set out for a paddle around Nickajack Lake.

The lake is the reservoir created when the Nickajack Dam was constructed in 1967 on the Tennessee River. Our guide Zach provided lots of history about the dam and the changes it brought to the area.

We paddled to a bridge that had the remnants of many nests made by Cliff Swallows. Their early-season nests are made of mud and harden as they dry, looking almost like they are made of cement. Also under the bridge in a very small space (for the bridge to expand/contract with the weather) we could see a bat hanging asleep. I would have never ever have seen it if not pointed out to me.

As we paddled into the Tennessee River, we circled around the osprey stations created when the dam was built. Though it was past season for the osprey to be on their nest, we could see the remains of a large nest sitting on the platform. It’s a preferable spot to the other place they usually will nest, on power line transmission towers (where we also saw a nest). Their nests can weigh several hundred pounds!

As we paddled towards the highlight of the evening, we saw a boat coming through the locks. I said, “It looks like a pirate ship, but I think we can take it!” and everyone laughed.

But then as it got closer, we saw that it was a replica of Christopher Columbus’s Pinta ship, which is currently on tour in the area, and really is a pirate ship in its own way. It was fun to see from our kayaks.

We sat near the bridge as a train rumbled over; we could feel the vibrations through our kayaks in the water.

But the real item of interest for the night was the Nickajack Bat Cave! The cave is home to 100,000 endangered gray bats over the summer, though the population by early October is about half that (they migrate to cooler caves to hibernate).

The cave is about 140 feet wide; prior to the area being flooded with the dam, the entrance was 50 feet high (it’s now about half that). This colony may consume 274,000 pounds of insects a year!

Nickajack is a unique cave where females come to roost while pregnant and to give birth (a “maternity roost”). Pockets in the ceiling trap warm air, which makes the cave just the right temperature for developing baby bats.

And for those wondering, yes, gray bats have suffered from White Nose Syndrome, though their populations have rebounded in recent years.

Doug and I both imagined we would sit in front of the cave and thousands of bats would come out flying high in the sky over our heads, but that’s not how it worked.

Instead, we sat back away from the entrance a bit, and after the sun set the bats came out a few at a time, swooping low over the water around us as they grabbed insects. It was amazing! I felt a little teary eyed at the amazing skills of these mammals and the awesome scene before us. We posted a video below.

Darkness set quickly and then it was time to kayak back to the start. We absolutely loved our trip, and hope to do more with this company another time (they have a sandhill crane kayak!). The sunset was beautiful and it was lovely to be out on the water. We also saw a bald eagle soar overhead, which our guide said was probably hunting for bats! Who knew!

Bats are absolutely fascinating animals, and their history is interesting, too. I had previously read The Secret Lives of Bats: My Adventures with the World’s Most Misunderstood Mammals by Merlin Tuttle^#AD.

Tuttle has worked with bats for more than 50 years, so the book was full of information and stories.