Owensboro to Yellow Creek

Ohio River

Peter B. English Park in Owensboro, KY (Mile 757.5) to Yellow Creek (Mile 752)

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Navigation Charts

Upon arriving at the Peter B. English Park (web page here) you'll find yourself on the west side of Owensboro, Kentucky on the grounds of an old lock and dam (old 46). There’s a marker here which dedicates the spot and you can check out the inscription (here). Waymarking.com is a great website which highlights our country's historical markers, many of which can't be easily accessed from our roadways without blocking traffic. What I mean is that you can see them beside the road in most cases but you can't realistically stop and read many of them. This website makes it easy to do so.

Anyway, from the time I arrived I was taking picture after picture. Not only is the park really nice, but as you drive down to the ramp you’ve also got some sweeping views of the river as well.

Once I got on the water I decided to cross over to the Indiana side and paddle upstream. The wind was blowing just hard enough and in just the right direction to move the water in that way. I’ve found that this frequently happens on the Ohio at this time of year with the lazy late summer flow of the water. Thus, you can actually paddle downriver if you want too because the surface water effect essentially nullifies the natural flow of the stream. It’s always best to exercise caution, however, until you feel comfortable. I usually paddle around a little while in order to judge the combined effect of the wind and the current before I decide whether or not it’s safe to paddle downstream. Otherwise I always paddle upriver. You’ve simply got more control that way. You don't want to go downriver and then have to paddle upstream at the end of the day in adverse conditions when you're tired.

Anyway, as you begin in this fashion you’ll have downtown Owensboro in full view. Today the light wasn’t really cooperating with me so my pictures didn’t turn out too well, but as I recall the last time I was out here (about 6 years ago) Owensboro did not have a break wall! Now they do, and it covers almost the entire downtown area. In fact, this wall appeared to still be under construction. It seems they must have had some problems with all the flooding that occurred this past spring and hopefully the park which lies along this area (Bill Struthers Park) will be reopened soon. From the looks of things, however, they'll at least have a VERY nice new playground for the kids. The former boat ramp and marina looks like it’ll be a casualty though. Owensboro’s city website is here and there’s another site which has links to its’ chamber of commerce and visitors and convention bureau. That site is here.

At any rate, you’ll have reached the Owensboro Highway Bridge (for US231) at about mile 756.5. This bridge goes directly into the downtown area and it’s only about a mile from the put-in.

Also of note here is that the river actually splits to stream around either side of Yellow Bank Island at this point. Yellow Bank is a splinter-like, 2.5 mile land mass on the Indiana (north) side of the river which forms a narrow channel separate from the main river. I paddled the main channel first but I was able to come back later to explore it and when I did I found it to be very pleasant with little to no sign of the endless string of commercial activity which lies on the Kentucky side of the main channel.

As regards the main channel I had originally intended to paddle it on the Indiana side to avoid some of the activity, but I found some barges docked just past the bridge with a towboat backing up with one of them in my direction. I stopped and waited to determine exactly where he was going before continuing…

In time it was apparent that he was moving the barge over to some grain elevators in Kentucky to the site of either Yager Materials (website here) or Owensboro Grain (website here) just before river mile 756. To be honest, I was getting these two businesses mixed up! The navigation charts have Owensboro Grain as coming first (or closer to the bridge) and then Yager, but as I drove by later I found that this order may well be reversed.

Either way, Yager looks to be a nice, family run business which has been in operation since 1913. According to their website they supply all kinds of raw materials for businesses in the tri-state – gravel, crushed stone, concrete, asphalt and even some marine services. Meanwhile, Owensboro Grain produces all kinds of products from soybeans! Check out their website. This company’s history is really interesting!

Anyway, it was in the midst of absorbing all this that I noted a second towboat moving amid the barges on the Kentucky shoreline. Oh, boy… What to do? I decided to wait a little longer and eventually the first boat (the smaller of the two – I couldn’t catch a name) got to the other side of the river with his barge while the second boat, the James B. Yager, headed downriver and away from me with his. (I’d actually see the “James B.” returning about 5 hours later when I got back to the ramp.)

At any rate, when all this activity had come to pause I decided to paddle on over to Kentucky. Yes, there were more businesses on that side, but I suspected that the first towboat might eventually have another load to push over to Indiana and that I might be in his way if I stayed here. I headed on over - quickly - on a diagonal path upriver to try and avoid that possibility…

LaFarge (more info here) came up next. Although their river operation didn’t look to be as large as that of the previous two businesses, their overall operation might well be much larger. According to their website LaFarge North America has over 1000 offices as they’re apparently the largest diversified supplier of construction materials in both the United States and Canada!

An intake for Owensboro Municipal Power now followed and then a Chevron USA operation and a Glenmore Distilleries facility (like I said, there’s a lot going on here!). The Chevron plant looked fairly large but there was no activity at their waterfront today. Meanwhile, the charts indicated that the Glenmore Distillery is inactive and this certainly appeared to be the case as I looked along their length of shoreline. I did see a ton of bricks here as if a large structure or a lengthy wall had recently been torn down. Turns out, this historic distillery went through some rough times before being bought by the Sazerac Company in 2009. More info on their history here.

I paused now to get some pictures as the towboat Robin B. Ingram passed me by with a load of barges heading downriver. You’ll see Ingram Barge vessels all up and down the river but this particular one seemed to have been named after a member of the Ingram family. It looked great on the water. The picture below highlights more of the character of the Indiana shoreline where there isn't nearly as much going on. More on Ingram Barge here.

Anyway, there’s supposedly a sailing club up next in the midst of some nice homes just before you reach a business that the charts indicate as being The Texas Company just past mile 755. I assume this is Texas Gas Transmission LLC (company info here) as they apparently run a gas pipeline through here.

This is also about the point where you’ll have reached the opposite end of that island I mentioned - the slender one on the Indiana side. There’s a great sandy/rocky beach here for you to stop and rest if you like. Indiana, by the way, is all farmland in this section and if you were to drive over the US231 Bridge over into Indiana from Owensboro you’d see some awesome scenes of the beautiful countryside, particularly in the fall.

Back to Kentucky which continued to have a lot going on…

I next encountered the Coast Guard cutter Obion docked alongside the Southern States River Terminal a little past mile 754. There must be a station here as I notice from a map that there’s a road that ends at the river at this spot called Coast Guard Lane, but to my dismay I couldn’t find much info on either this station or on the Southern States Terminal.

Meanwhile, those smokestacks you’ve been seeing up ahead for the last few miles belong to Owensboro Utilities’ Elmer Smith Power Plant (http://omu.org/about_us/facilities/elmer_smith_power_plant.php) and today there was a real rush of water emanating from one of its’ structures down on the water. In fact, as I look on a map now I see a little canal running alongside the plant that may be part of the Cavin Water Treatment Complex (http://omu.org/about_us/facilities/cavin_water_treatment.php) which is also in here somewhere. Regardless, I paddled to mid-river to avoid the water flow. I couldn’t read what the sign on the structure said but I’m pretty sure it was something of a warning that small boats might be capsized if they get too close!

As I neared mile 252 I encountered another Yager facility. This time it was Yager Marine Industries and their associated dock (as distinguished from the operation I’d seen back down by the bridge, Yager Materials) and sure enough – remember that towboat I mentioned that was going back and forth across the river back at the bridge? Well he had, indeed, returned to Indiana to pick up another barge and he was bringing it up here! He passed me up at about this point and dropped it off. Not at Yager though - a little further up. Then he picked a different barge with a crane on it and moved that to another spot at the same location (it looked like Green Coal Company but I’ll cover that in the next journal)! It’s quite clear that Yager not only has a real presence here, they’ve also got a ton of business right in the immediate vicinity!

Yellow Creek entered next just past mile 252 and I was able to get a break from the action. I got in about 300 yards before my way was blocked by a large fallen tree and visible just beyond it was what I would miss – some turtles hanging out on a log! I must say that paddling into this creek was a nice break from all the industry in here and it was at this point that I decided to cross back over to Indiana. I wanted to have enough time to check out that stream of water around the other side of Yellow Bank Island…

How is the paddle along the Indiana shore? Well I really enjoyed it! It was nice to watch all the activity without being so close! This Indiana side is really serene in this section with some pretty sweet beaches and not a lot of trash. These beaches don’t have much depth until you get back to the tip of the island, but what a great spot it is! Even the view of the smokestacks at the power plant is pleasant from here!

It was so nice I even spotted what I think was a grebe. It was enjoying the atmosphere so much that it let me get fairly close…

It was at this point that I paddled all the way around the island. You see, I didn’t know how the water flow might be in this little channel so I decided to approach it an upriver fashion so as not to encounter any surprises. Thus, I went back down to Owensboro on the main channel, happening upon another nice barge scene. I then turned upriver into this side stream, paddled its’ length and returned to Owensboro.

Doing all this reminded me of my navigation on the Kentucky River in 2008. If you, too, ever happen to paddle the Kentucky you’ll find that it’s about the same width with very little to distract you from engaging in some good, old fashioned contemplation. Could traveling on such waters with a certain mindset be considered meditation? I think it could… Anyway, it turned out that I would have no special currents in this section to present anything hazardous, just a peaceful flow of water and I thought that the best pictures I got of downtown Owensboro were from the downriver end of this channel…

It was about time to return home now so back to the ramp I headed, encountering the James B. Yager once more as I mentioned…

This was a great trip to Owensboro and I look forward to returning someday to paddle the other Ohio River sections around it!

DIRECTIONS:

I took the William H. Natcher Parkway up from Bowling Green and then proceeded to head for the downtown Owensboro area by following the US60 Bypass up north and around the east side of the city. This will soon dead-end at the regular version of US60 and I took a left. This will take you straight into downtown, but you’ll go right through if you want to reach English Park and its’ ramp. Just stay on US60 West (or 2nd Street) and once you pass Fredericka Street (the main drag) you’ll go 10 blocks and then you can turn right on either Woodford Avenue or Hanning Lane to reach the park (Hanning is more direct – otherwise you’ll just have to drive through some parking lots to reach the ramp – either way it’s still pretty easy to find from this point).

Be aware, however, that getting out may be a little confusing. US60 is one way as it goes around this west side of Owensboro. Westbound (the way you came in) it’ll be West 2nd Street but going out you’ll need to take it eastbound on West 4th Street. Just take Hanning back out and cross over West 2nd, then West 3rd and make a left on West 4th (yep, that’s US60 which will take you back out of town). Then just catch the Bypass US60 and take it back to the Natcher Parkway.