At about the time last year's trip ended I'd been reading a book called Mississippi Solo by Eddy Harris.  I picked up the book and could not put it down until I absolutely had to at page 100.  I figured this would be a good place to stop because I’d easily be able to remember where I'd left off - but I never got back to it!  The way last year's trip had ended, I hadn’t the heart to pick it back up again.  That was until this past weekend.   I decided that I’d start it again from the beginning – just as I had this Kentucky River narrative. 

Mr. Harris paddled the Mississippi River alone in the 1980's.  He did it from the river's start at Lake Itaska in Minnesota all the way down to New Orleans and his book on that experience was, for me, a wonderful and all absorbing read that I can recommend to anyone – paddler or no.  Even though the author went almost 10 times as far as I’m going, camping all the way, I feel I’ve found a kindred spirit.  There aren’t many people who decide to paddle the entire length of a long river.  As the saying goes though:  wherever you go, there you are!  I don’t think I would be doing this if I weren’t really meant to. 

It’s funny that when I started this journey I was approaching the river from a purely recreational point of view, and that now I’ve become totally immersed in it's history as well.  I do feel that the story of this river should be retold from a historical as well as from a recreational perspective.  That’s because so much of it's history has been forgotten and so much of it's recreational value is unknown.  Every time I either uncover something else about it or I'm told of something else, I am incredibly intrigued because I’ve discovered what many other river appreciating people have long known:  the spirit of a river can really get to a person.  I paddle it alone on this day, but I'm never truly alone.

I started out the day by heading to Nicholasville via Tate’s Creek Road.  I hadn’t noticed previously, but there are large swaths of farm acreage up for sale from Lexington to Nicholasville.  This saddens me because I know that much of it will probably be torn up to build subdivisions or shopping centers.  Nicholasville itself is really nice with tons of historical houses and a sweet downtown, but it’s become so incredibly congested that I try to avoid going directly through it if I can.  There has been so much growth in this entire region!  Once I got to KY39 it was better, however.  There are several old farmhouses out here with lots of land, although some of them are in need of some TLC.  My grandmother grew up in a farmhouse similar to these in rural southern Indiana near Shawneetown on the Ohio River.

You'll find the ramp I used today at the end of KY39 at the river.  It's alternatively called the Nickell Boat Ramp or the Highway 39 Fish and Wildlife Ramp.  It’s nicely paved.  The community of Paint Lick is located near here, as was a ferry of the same name which operated until 1950.  Paint Lick was, in fact, another one of the stops for the showboats I’ve mentioned.  There’s also another ramp here directly across the river - the Buckeye Ridge ramp.

I began my day by paddling up to the Lower Hunters Bar at Sawmill Run, the point at which I'd stopped last Thursday.  There’s a shoal here and from a distance away I spotted a couple blue tinted figures here.  At first I though they might be herons but as I paddled closer I thought:  “Boy, those herons seem to have extremely long necks!”  Turns out, these were 2 pipes sticking out of pails in the ground!  They weren’t there last Thursday and I had no idea what they were for, but they did give me a chuckle.  (As mentioned in the last entry, this shoal either was or was near the spot where the old Lower Hunter’s Ferry ran.)  

At about mile 147.5 there was a ramp with a little dock of 4 boats, and in another spot was what appeared to be a very old lifeguard stand made of steel.  Former beach here, or just a relocated chair?  I’m intrigued…  There was also a little shoal at a power line over the river on the left at mile 146.5 which was a bit deceptive because, like some of the shoals I noticed on the last leg of the trip, it was a lot longer under the surface than it appeared.  Wild Horse Branch next appeared over a large shoal on the right.  There’s a gravel road leading down to it, and while the large number of turkey buzzards I'd noticed loitering here on the way upriver were no longer around, a mess of noisy crows sure were!  Can these birds ever make a racket! 

After a curve right in the river at mile 146, I was back at the ramp where I started.  The Paint Lick Creek enters here on the left and I got in about 1/2 mile – the same as I had the Silver Creek on the last trip.  In fact, I’d get into the Sugar Creek further down almost exactly the same distance.  Thus, all 3 of the navigable creeks  in this pool are of roughly the same length (at least as of this time - the character of these streams can, of course, change).  There was a pack of dogs on the ramp to the right side of the mouth of Paint Lick when I entered.  It looked like a collie and a few puppies, and they peered at me from over the bank as I paddled in.  The collie didn’t take to me very well though as I stopped to take a picture of them.  I somehow merited a growl.  How rude! 

Once you paddle back out of this stream, a sandy beach will be on the right just downriver from the KY39 ramp, and from here you’ll launch into a backward “C” curve which is called the Teeter’s Turnhole Bend.  The right side of this curve will start and end with a rocky bottom at the river bank, but it’ll tower higher in the middle and there are a number of spots which would be nice waterfalls at higher water.  Dry Run comes in at one of these, but it was indistinguishable from the rest - dry.  In fact, that name seems awfully familiar... Yep!  Dry Branch at mile 161.5, Dry Run at 173.5...  I thought I’d passed more “drys” but there are certainly a few streams with this name. 

The next 2 streams should, I believe, be about ½ mile further down than they appear on the navigation charts.  The first, Teeter’s Branch, enters dry over a large shoal on the left at mile 144.5.   Teeter’s Ferry ran across the river somewhere in here at one point.  In fact, on the opposite side I saw remnants of a metal ladder at a smaller shoal – was this possibly used in conjunction with the old ferry?  The second stream, Yates Branch, enters from the right at about mile 144 and it looked like someone lived in a nice old cabin here. 

After these streams the rocky bank briefly switches to the left leaving you with some nice farmland views on the right at the top of a landing maybe 10 feet up the bank. 

Anyhow, once you do reach Sugar Creek, you'll have arrived in a location that has incredible history on both sides of the river.  On the left was Quantico Landing, once a premier tobacco market whose fame in the early 1800’s extended all the way to investors in Britain.  This bygone community once had a tavern, hotel, sawmill, gristmill, tobacco warehouse, and the Harris (or Davis) Ferry which operated until 1939.  Some of the structures extended all the way back into the Sugar Creek which comes in at about mile 142.5.  I'll describe this creek before turning my narrative over to the history on the other side of the river...