De-Stress Outdoors

Ohio River

Interstate 24 Bridge (Mile 941) to Paducah, Kentucky (Mile 935)

October 2022

Today I put in from the ramp at the end of Broadway Street right in the heart of downtown Paducah, Kentucky. Paducah is similar to towns like Parkersburg, Point Pleasant and Maysville in that it lies on the southern side of the river and is thus prone to flooding. As a result, these communities have all built flood walls to protect them from overflow. Realizing, however, that walls like this might be a bit unsightly, the towns have arranged to have a series of beautiful murals painted on them such that a negative has been turned into a positive. Otherwise plain walls have became instead a celebration of the communities and their history. Paducah refers to theirs as "Paducah Wall to Wall". If you click the link you'll see what I'm talking about.

Funny how a persistent negative can be turned into an ongoing positive. I recently watched a movie from my childhood - Snoopy Come Home. In it, Snoopy is vexed by all the signs he sees indicating that there are "No Dogs Allowed". These prevent him from going anywhere. Well, in the end one sign turns out to be his salvation (or excuse as the case may be) to return the Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang. Happy 100th birthday Charles Shultz!

Anyway, you'll find that the Paducah riverfront also has an river museum called the River Discovery Center. I checked it out once and found it to be quite enjoyable! The National Quilt Museum is also here. Below is a scene from down on the water, but putting in at this point can be a little dicey. You see, both the Crounse Corporation and Ingram Barge, two of the foremost operators of push boats in the country, have major operations directly upstream. Needless to say, there's a lot of river traffic! That's not all, though. Compounding the navigational challenge is the fact that the Tennessee River also comes in alongside an island (Owens Island) right at this point. Please be careful! To begin my navigation I paddled down to the Interstate 24 Bridge at mile 941 where I'll begin an upriver narrative back to this point.

The I24 bridge at mile 941 is also known as the Paducah Bridge, and here I met a fellow paddler out in a canoe on the Kentucky side. Unfortunately, I was quite distracted by what I found to be a lot of dredging activity immediately downriver and directly in the center of the stream. Having come downriver along the Kentucky shoreline, I'd wanted to paddle back upriver on the Illinois side to see what it was like too. I'd have to cross here. Time to brace myself... Below are some photos I took as I crossed.

Good thing I didn't have to worry about this vessel moving! It was a little eerie passing right in front of it...

...and meet Dredge McGeorge! :)

About 1/2 mile upriver from the bridge you'll find Sevenmile Creek on the Illinois side. I found that the slack water went back not quite a mile, yet I found this stream to be absolutely spectacular in terms of wildlife! In fact, I think it may be part of Massac State Park. Check out the huge bird nest in the first photo! Perhaps a heron nest?

Then, as I paddled out I encountered the largest turtle I'd ever seen. It wasn't to be bothered as I passed. It stayed right where it was! Sometimes I'll be paddling along a quiet stream like this and my reverie will suddenly be interrupted by an extremely loud crash that will really startle me. Well, now I think I know what might cause some of these! This beast was the size of an automobile tire!

Back on the Ohio, I found the Illinois shoreline to be quite pleasant (first photo below) and at mile 939.5 I'd taken some time earlier to explore Perkins Creek in Kentucky. I didn't see as much wildlife in this one, but it went back about as far as Sevenmile did in terms of navigable water - not quite a mile. There was an old bridge at the end that I thought was quite pleasant.

Back on the Ohio there was another major dredging operation near the mouth of this creek. I found it interesting to see all the large boulders filling the barges instead of coal, yet it's just now as I look at the navigation charts that I see this was the location of old lock and dam 52! I love seeing these old structures and I'm always on the lookout for them, yet here there was so much going on that I completely failed to notice the larger context within which I was paddling ! The first two photo's show the action from the Kentucky shoreline while the second pair show what it's like looking upriver in Illinois.

All this was happening between the aforementioned I24 Bridge and the Irvin S. Cobb span that comes next near mile 937. The latter connects the western end of downtown Paducah to the city of Brookport, Illinois. Perhaps it's more common on these southernmost sections of the Ohio, but Brookport is the first community I've seen on the northern side of the river that has a flood wall. Previously they'd all been in towns on the southern side.

A couple more miles and you'll be back in downtown Paducah, but in the meantime you'll pass a boat ramp on the Kentucky side which is off Burnett Street (web page here) along with a trio of lakes in Illinois which are just obscured from view - Ballard, Brushy and Loon Lake. These could well be oxbow lakes, formed when the river gets too tricky in it's meandering and closes in on itself (National Geographic has a more technical explanation here). Some pushboats were engaging in some teamwork here...

As far as Paducah itself, you'll first have the convention center followed by the Holiday Inn Riverfront (formerly the Executive Inn as per the charts) and then the Raymond C. Schultz Park. I stayed at the hotel once and it's a nice place to stay with a great river view. As for the park, it has a multi-purpose trail along which you're apt to see bikers, walkers and perhaps even some roller bladers in the summer. There's also a little city marina here along with what they call a transient boat dock before you reach the ramp where I put in. I think there are intentions for this area beyond what I saw today as there looked to be some construction in progress.

These last photos didn't turn out the greatest with the shadows having begun to descend, but I hope they provide an interesting perspective on the area at dusk...