The Tennessee is not that interesting, but the Little Tennessee and its feeder rivers really are. The French Broad River runs east and then north, wrapping around the mountains to turn west. It is also joined by the Pigeon river, whose headwaters are in the Graveyard Fields atop the Pisgah ridge. Both join with the Little Tennessee into the Tennessee itself. That goes on to join the Mississippi.
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I took walks along the French Broad when I was down there. I did have a hard time adjusting to its route, which made no sense to me at that point. I kept thinking it had to run east to the Atlantic, but it's on the wrong side of Mt. Mitchell for that. I was told that it actually runs south for a ways down by the SC border, and so makes a full directional circuit, even though it doesn't come close to closing a loop. I just looked it up and that seems just about true. One has to count some of the wandering of Douglas Lake, but plenty of that is actually heading south as well.
That Douglas Lake looks like a nice route to take a canoe or small engine boat for a browse. I had never heard of it before. I imagine there is a lot of vacation housing up there.
The headwaters include a "North Fork" and a "West Fork," each of which run opposite to their names. The North Fork runs south along NC 215, just before it reaches US 64. The confluence of the forks occurs right at that intersection. There's a great kayak/canoe place there, with a taproom and a food truck called "Mama Bear's." It's one of my favorite stops.
NC 215 is a great road. It runs up to the Blue Ridge Parkway near what is usually called "The Devil's Courthouse," not far from the Graveyard Fields. If you cross the Parkway and head back down the other side, there are a number of beautiful falls and then another very nice lake way back in the woods, still quite a long drive from anywhere. The Pigeon River joins the road on this side of the mountains, flows into that lake, and then heads north around to Pigeon Forge in Tennessee (where it joins the Little Tennessee, I seem to recall).
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