On April Fools’ Day, adventurer and canoeist John Dawson came to Eagleville to check out the headwaters of the Harpeth River, where he planned to launch his 120-mile journey to the Cumberland River.

Because he only had his coon dog, Sally, as a companion that day, he only paddled around a bit in the bubbling spring-fed headwaters on Highway 99 near Swamp Road.

"It would have been fool-hearty to have gone further since I was alone," he said. "There may be logs or an emergency. I never go trail riding alone unless I know the trail, and this is totally unknown as far as I am concerned."

The Brentwood resident estimates he could make the trip down the Harpeth from Eagleville to the Cumberland River somewhere between five and 10 days, depending on the current.

But, like on his horse trail ride adventures, he will take day trips to reach his destination.

"In this instance, today I would like go to the lead plant at College Grove, and then continue the next phase of the journey the next day or the next week," he said. "I’m starting today, and I have the rest of my life to do it."

Dawson will be using a series of canoes, some hand built and some aluminum ones, depending upon where he is going.

Concerning hazards on his journey, he has been warned to watch out for water moccasins and logs falling across a river.

"The water goes under the log and the canoe follows the water and that could be deadly if you get trapped or penned against a log in a flow where you cannot get out," he said.

Dawson quotes U.S. Supreme Court associate justice William O. Douglas, who was from the Northeast, in "Of Men and Mountains" about what he fears in the woods.

There are two things to fear in the woods, burying in snow by avalanche and fire, and all the rest of them, you should just take precautions, Douglas said.

"On this river, I’ll just say I fear nothing," Dawson said. "I will go safely because with the friends I go with and the precautions I take, I have no fears. Besides, what do you do when you are 66?"

Dawson describes himself as a salesman and an adventurer.

After earning a doctorate in chemistry at Florida State University, he returned to his undergraduate school at David Lipscomb in Nashville as a professor for eight years.

After that he started an environmental laboratory business in Brentwood, and in 13 years he got tired of that and moved to environmental sales.

"Right now in the last month or so, I have been kind of figuring out what I am going to do next," he said.

For now, he is also building a canoe, which he says is really more a restoration project.

"I took an old canoe and am re-canvassing it," he said. "Then maybe in the next year or two I might build one of those cedar strip canoes that is like building a piece of furniture."

Dawson grew up in Michigan, where he and his father went on canoe trips when he was in the Boy Scouts at about age 13.

"So good memories are big part of what we are doing today," he said.

Dawson expects his grandchildren and their fathers may accompany him on his canoe trip down the Harpeth "on the more certain parts" but doubts that his wife, Carol, who teaches at Middle Tennessee State University, will.

"It is possible, but not likely," he said.

Dawson plans to write a book on his trip down the Harpeth River.