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2008
Lock and Dam 2 in
Today was a good day. I knew exactly how to get to
the put-in because I’d scouted it out on Monday in the midst of trying to find a
put-in for the upriver section. I was also happy because I
was getting really close to
This pool between Lock and Dam 2 and Lock and Dam 1 is the largest one on the Kentucky River. It'll take me 3 days to finish. After that I have the smallest pool from Lock and Dam 1 to the Ohio River. That's do-able in one day. That being the case, I may have just 3 more paddling days left after today before I reach the end of the river in Carrollton! That's a good thing too, because the weather is starting to get colder. It looks like we'll go from low 80 degree highs this coming Monday, when I'm scheduled to make my next trip to low 70 degree highs on Friday, the day I'm scheduled to be done.
At any rate, I must say that
the river has really been a constant friend throughout this entire summer-long
navigation. It's calmed and
soothed me in the midst of uncertainty, and it's also given me a serene place in
which to spend a lot of time thinking about my life and about what truly matters. A
better perspective has emerged - one which has left me more confident than ever
that my problems will work themselves out and that everything will be OK given
time. I know that the world is
basically a good place because out of everything bad that happens something good
always comes of it – even if it's simply bringing people together for
the common good. It doesn’t work the other way.
Something bad doesn’t always occur after something good.
Thus, to me, it never makes sense to worry. Worrying is a
complete waste of time, emotion and mental energy. Indeed, trust may
well hold the key to inner peace.
I failed to mention it the last time, but on my drive out from Lexington I passed through the community of
As you drive
to
this put-in which is
immediately downstream of
Lock and Dam 2 in Lockport, Kentucky (full directions below)
you'll want to watch out as you make the turn off Kentucky Route 389 and descend
toward a rocky beach. You see, there’s a
ledge on the descent that is liable to carve out parts of your vehicle's
undercarriage if you’re not wary. I got a pretty good
scrape! Anyway, when I arrived at the beach I saw a couple fishermen
out
trying their luck, so I got my gear and stuff
out of my car as quietly as I could and parked as far out of the way as possible
while still staying fairly visible.
According to William Ellis's
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At any rate, despite the fact that the sky had been bright and sunny on the drive out, it was still foggy down on the water. As you looked upriver you could see fairly clearly, but when you looked downstream where I was headed it was still hazy and unclear. There were a couple little “squiggly” curves for the first mile, and at about mile 30 there was a grain elevator that extended over the water on the left side. This was apparently part of the Geoghegan and Mathis Lockport Quarry (now run by Lieter's Inc.). Business looked to be pretty good judging from all the trucks I saw on the road while driving in, but I’m not sure if this barge elevator is in use anymore. It may be that it’s more economical now to transport over land. 2009 UPDATE: I saw 4 barges linked together here, one of which had some HUGE spans on it (these would be for the new bridge).
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Anyway, I saw
something skimming along the water in here and it aroused my curiosity.
I turned out to be a gored fish, just kind of swimming in circles as if unable to fully swim anymore.
I don’t think it had been caught by a fisherman and put back in because
it was too impaired for that. It looked more like it had been
picked up by a bird and dropped because the marks on it looked like they could
have been made by talons. Can I feel bad for a fish? I think that’s permissible…
Life sure seems cruel at times.
From the grain elevator to about mile 26.5 you've got one long 3 1/2 mile curve to the left. Gratz, Kentucky is on the right side at mile 28.5 and there's a mile and a half long stretch of shoreline that takes the appearance of a rocky ledge that leads all the way down to it. It might be a challenge in spots, but one might actually be able to walk the entire way for a nice stroll!
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The Gratz beach itself lies just upstream of the Gratz Bridge (or Kentucky State Route 22 Bridge). It's supposed to have been a stop for the old showboats! In fact, there’s a rock wall here at the beach above which is a little raised spot where a band might have played to a crowd! I could envision all the people who might have lined the shore here (and in boats) to watch these shows! Wow, do I ever wish I could have actually seen one! It makes me wish I'd been born 50 years earlier! A spot called Leitch’s Landing is on the other side of the river here, by the way. UPDATE 2009 - The bridge I metioned looks like it'll be constructed right in the middle of the photo below, so I'm glad I had a chance to take it. I admit to having mixed feelings about this. The old bridge has a lot of charm and it makes for a really picturesque scene as you go over it Northbound into Gratz. UPDATE 2021 - The bridge does span the water here, but it's left everything intact. Something else - the old bridge is now completely gone, but there's a boat ramp in it's place - a consolation. :)
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The
Gratz Bridge was the one for KY22 that I drove in on, and the
trucks transporting to and from the quarry were really in evidence here.
Truck after truck kept going over. I
thought the construction boom was over, but apparently not here.
Things look to be going quite well! I conversed with a fisherman
and his son not long after this. He stopped his boat and we
passed the time of day for a while. He confirmed that there
were no more stores in Gratz but I forgot to ask him about the put-in points
further downriver, darn it! I'd made a mental note at the beginning
of the day to do this if I ran across any boaters. I would
NOT forget again.
Incidentally, all the incoming creeks in this long left curve I mentioned were pretty much dry: Claylick Creek at Gratz, Leitch’s Creek at mile 27.5 and Rocky Point Creek just past mile 27. Meanwhile, right at mile 27 the navigation charts indicate that there is or was a lead mine. In researching it now, I see from the maps that this mine has its own road - Lead Mine Road - which leads down to the river off KY355. Kentuckians sure got right to the point when naming their roads. The left curve ends at Rock Bar Landing and this could possibly have been another old ferry location. It looked like there were a couple dwellings here.
Following this there was a stretch on the left shoreline that had me thinking of
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At a spot near mile 24.5 I found a spot along the outside of a sharp left curve that had me wanting to stop and just laze. :) This was another Laurel Lake-like rocky beach (see below). It’s a great location, and just past it I saw some more wildlife. It was a fox that I first saw. It was standing on the bank and it lingered for several seconds before it did something I’ve seen domesticated dogs do. It playfully rolled around on its back in the dirt before jumping up and running away back up the hill on a zigzg path!
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The next thing I saw
was a large fish that dove up above the water. It was an odd
looking sort, maybe about 2 ½ feet long by 2 feet wide with a gar-like snout.
It looked like a paddle fish although I suppose it could have been a chubby
gar (there are certainly a lot of minnows to fill these fish up)!
I later saw what could have been the same fish jump over the water on the way back,
so
I decided to give it a name – Buddy! Buddy the paddlefish/gar!
What can I say. I’m prone to whimsical thoughts when I paddle!
Mile 24 to the end of
this section at mile 21.5
is actually a slow left curve made up of small straight stretches.
Marshall Bottom lies between mile 23 and 22. The
charts have it on the left, but I think it’s on the right.
There were also some houses here where a power line crossed and there may be an
RV park/campground up there. There was also a point on the
left where I was able to get some of the clearest farmland views I’d seen on the
river in quite some time. In fact, the
area reminded me of the points above
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A curve right was the final one I would make today. It extended from about mile 21.5 to mile 21 at Drennon Creek. There were more of the gently sloping rocky banks on the left in this section, and I got into the creek nearly 1/3 mile. This used to quite a place from what I’ve read. The community of Drennon Springs, Kentucky is up there and they used to operate a mineral spring resort back in the 1800’s. It was so popular that it supposedly attracted people of great prominence from all over the country (there's a great article on the history here). This was also another showboat stop.
I really took time to stop and envision all this as I gazed up at the bridge going over the stream, and I'm grateful that I did. If I hadn't I wouldn't have noticed something for the first time. You'd think I'd have noted the phenomenon before, but a light breeze was creating little waves on top of the water and these were then being reflected by the sun off the water and up onto the bottom of the bridge! The effect was similar in the branches of the trees! It all produced an incredibly pleasant kaleidoscope of quietly moving patterns which, in turn, promoted a profound sense of tranquility in me!
You see, at times the river seems truly alive and it can produce a strange state of mind in which I envision the river gently trying to relate its story. I wish I could describe that better, but the word "ethereal" might be an apt descriptor. In fact, I can think back on this experience even now and still be soothed by the memory. Crazy? Maybe so, but this is yet another gift offered by the river at no cost to the beholder.
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Toward the end of navigability in
Drennon Creek I found that the water seemed to take on a green hue - about a mid-level shade - and
that there was more of that dense green alphabet soup alga here as well. In
fact, I looked back this time and saw that it swallowed up my path through the
water as I went. Oddly, it almost seems as if these little
green plants are attracted to each other much like magnets - they come back
together whenever you go through them. It's pretty cool.
Once having emerged
from the stream I began to head back upriver, and in the process I ran into a
couple of guys in a boat who took the time to speak with me.
I’d noticed them as they'd passed me earlier because they had a
dog in the front of the boat with them that was barking all the way up the river – and not
at me – it was barking at things on the other side of me! I mentioned
to the guys that I thought they had quite a nice
watch-dog, and it was then that one of them informed me that the dog will bark at
anything that’s out of place on the water. At that particular
moment it was barking at a milk bottle (or something like that) near the bank!
We conversed for a
while and I did remember to ask about put-ins. The
next one (in Perry Park) is public but the one after that (at Eagle Creek) is
not... Seems I’ll be OK on the next trip but the
one after that might be a challenge! What it looks like I’ll
have to do is put in at Lock and Dam 1 in the
Anothing thing of note on the
way back: another optical headache! This
one was worse than the one I got on the Steele Branch to dam 3 trip, so when I
got back to the ramp I went straight to the general store in
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DIRECTIONS:
Get to