Monday, August 12, 2008

Dam 11 to the Red River (Mile 191)

I think I’ve mentioned it before, but when I’m revisiting points on the river that I’ve not paddled for a while the feeling is somewhat similar to visiting an old friend.  I’ve put in from the ramp at the end of KY977 three times now - once last year, once this spring and today.  This well paved ramp is right across from where the Red River enters the Kentucky at mile 191, and it looks like there used to be more to it judging from the remnants still visible.  Also across from this point are a couple boat ramps, a house, a shelter and a few boats at what could be a little marina.  I’m prone to calling these "marinara's" now.  I also call cows “moo-cows”.  My travels may well have driven me insane.  :)

Anyway, for this stretch of the river you'll find a rocky bank on one or the other shoreline almost the entire way.  That bank will take on one or more characteristics:  rocky shoreline, rocky ledge, rocky overhang or cliff.  This area will thus make up for the last 2 pools in terms of having places to stop and rest because even where there aren’t rocks there’s often a sandy beach.  I'll start this narrative at dam 11...

When I arrived here last year, I’d noticed some boaters using a ramp on the lock side almost immediately downriver.  I thought at the time that this ramp might be private, and after having gotten out and checked today, I do still believe this to be the case.  In fact, it looks like this might be on someone’s farm, so I beat a hasty retreat back down and headed to the very corner of the lock to check out the portage feasibility…  Here you’d have to walk up roughly 30-40 feet to the top over vegetation and large slabs of rock and concrete.  Apparently some old ruins were left discarded here.

Having seen this, I crossed to the other side of the river and in doing so I noticed a very large tree suspended partially over the dam.  I mentioned in the last (upriver) journal that this is a great spot and the shoreline on this dam side of the river is especially nice.  It’s a bit trash strewn now, but what an awesome recreation area this could be!  There’s a picturesque rocky ledge along with a sandy beach where I found quite a few white shells visible under the water (mussels?). 

When I walked up on the beach to take some pictures I got a chuckle.  There were actually some horses grazing across the way on top of the lock!  There couldn’t have been much grass over there between the concrete, but there they were - about a half dozen of them!  This was something else that made me want to just throw up my hands and laugh!  What a great sight!  I climbed as far up the rocks above the beach as I could, but was unable to get high enough to get a good, all encompassing view.

Back to my slide shape - as you go down the ladder the scenery shifts.  The rocky side is on the left now with the farmland on the right and a few things interested me in this section.  As per the picture below, some of the rock overhangs look almost  like the planters you’d see on a window ledge.  Also at a few points you’ll see a kind of alley all the way down the mountain where a little unnamed stream has come down and taken out everything but the rock face.  There was also a fallen tree protruding up from the water at one point in here that a considerate boater had painted bright orange in order to make it stand out.  People on the river almost always seem to be very considerate.

After the slide another shape takes form.  As you turn to the next page in the charts and face it in the direction that you’re going you’ll see the silhouette of an ear!  This ear will be in the position of a person lying down on their left side, and the river will follow this outline from the top of the ear all the way back to the ramp at the base of the “neck”.  The ear itself covers mile 197 to 192 while the neck comes in from mile 192 to 191.  

The shorelines will alternate scenery again in this area (rocky bank, farmland bank) and between mile 196 and 197 in particular there looked to be some really nice cattle grazing land.  This acreage was complete with shade trees along the shoreline that the cows could cool off under.  It was apparently feeding time for some of them here as they were heading out, mooing all the way.  I heard a donkey braying in the distance too.  Cow Run comes in at mile 196 but was not navigable. 

There’s another house in a clearing on top of a mountain just after this, and at around mile 195 there’s a cabin on a steep and rocky mountain slope.  Every time I come through here I wonder how they were able to construct it.  It must have taken a great deal of time and work.  Just getting the materials to this spot must have been an effort!  On the other side, at around mile 194, there was another wooden structure down by the water which I hadn’t seen before.  It looked like part of another camping/fishing setup and it was quite clever.

I’ll note here that it continues to interest me how perfectly the scenery shifts on the river.  In looking at the map now, it seems that the rocky areas are on the outside of each turn in this area, and this was the case as I continued on past Thronburg Bend at mile 193 and into Strawberry Bend at mile 192.  I also noticed something in this area that I hadn’t noticed before – how the sunlight shimmers across the tree trunks!  It almost seems to shatter and dance all over them while in others it moves in waves as it shimmers - quite an interesting phenomenon.

“Devil’s Backbone” is the name given to the rocky shoreline from mile 192 to 191 which, on my crazy silhouette, stretches down the back of the neck below the ear.  The Red River then comes in from the right while my ramp was on the left.  I won’t be able to explore all of the Red, but it’ll probably be the very next trip I make after I finish the Kentucky.  I’ve wanted to explore it for quite a while now.  The plan from here, however, is to return to this ramp next time to hopefully paddle the rest of this pool. 

On a side note, I got a picture of a couple calves checking me out on the way upriver.  I think it’s a good picture although it’s a little blurred.  It reminded me of a good family friend of ours who paints pictures of farm scenes.  I had forgotten this, and when I checked out her website I was quite impressed.  I honestly think anyone would be.  I can now say that Mrs. Leach is not only a great person, but a great artist as well!  You can check out her site for yourself too, if interested, at www.margiekleach.com.