I wonder where that BIG pipe goes?

[BlimeyCabrio]

If you've driven down 129 between Tapoco and Santeetlah, you've seen a BIG pipeline that goes over the highway... ever wonder where that goes? I did...

Ah, the fun things you can learn with Google Earth and Google Maps.

That pipeline is the mostly-straight mostly-vertical line you see in this map, running from Rhymer's Ferry to Santeetlah.

That's the supply line for the powerhouse that you can see across the river/lake when going down the Hellbender (Little Tennessee River/Cheoah Lake), about halfway between Fontana Dam and Deal's Gap. It goes about 5 miles from the Santeetlah Dam to that powerhouse. The elevation of Lake Santeetlah is about 1940 feet. The elevation of the river by the Hellbender is about 1275 feet. So they get almost 700 feet of vertical drop by routing it that way. To get there, they had to cross / tunnel through three ridges of about 2500 feet that run between the two spots.

More details here:
http://www.alcoa.com/tapoco/en/info_page/santeetlah.asp

The pipeline effectively diverts much of the flow of the Cheoah River - which is why the river between Santeetlah and Tapoco always seems pretty low... except on one of the 17-20 days per year when they open the floodgates and turn the Cheoah into a great Class IV-V rafting river - one of the best in the region!


Luckily this doesn't happen the weekend of MOTD, because that entire stretch of US129 is clogged with cars and rafting buses, like a great rafting goldrush. I was there during a release date last year, and it was crazy! And you could watch some fantastic rafting as you drove along the road. Very cool.

[COOP310]

the map doesn't work for me.

[BlimeyCabrio]

Fixed - thanks