Convergence of Forks to Dam 14

Kentucky River

Monday July 21, 2008

Convergence of the Forks to Dam 14 (Mile 249)

Usually when I make assumptions I find that I’m woefully inaccurate. It’s nice to know that my judgment is actually correct for once! As I wrote in my last entry, I was curious about the old bridge over the South Fork of the river around mile 6, so today I decided to have a look around prior to embarking on my paddle in order to test my theory that Pine Grove Road no longer goes across the river as the maps indicate.

This purpose in mind, I headed down KY1411 and I hadn’t quite gotten to Pine Grove Road when I was halted by a construction crew. Well, I’m not one to stop and ask pesky questions of people, but the man had come right up to the car and I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity. He was from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet by the insignia on his shirt and he put an end to my suspense. The bridge in question hadn’t been used in years and the road itself hadn’t gone through for quite some time. We talked for a while and I found out that we had some of the same interests in the outdoors (caving in particular) as well as in philosophy (of slowing life down a little). This conversation turned out to be quite uplifting to me since it’s always nice to know that someone else shares your views.

I got to the ramp and started out a little after 11AM. The ducks I saw last Monday were back. I hadn’t seen them on Wednesday or Friday. Once on the water, I paddled back down to where the forks all converge (the South Fork being the last) at mile 254.7. "Here we go!" I thought.

My thinking was that if I could get in 3 days of kayaking a week I might be able to get the river done in about 3 months. To recap, I’d planned on doing the river in circuit routes because it has no appreciable current. I’d go to one point, make a circuit and come back home. I'd then wait a day and then head back to the river to paddle a new circuit at a point just downriver from where I'd ended the previous trip. I’d repeat this all the way to Carrollton where the Kentucky River ends at the Ohio River and hopefully be done by the time it started to get really cold.

Anyway, the town of Beattyville continues on the right at this point and the community of Proctor starts on the left just beyond it. Also on the right there are 2 creeks which come in. This was interesting because on the map there’s only one (the converged Crystal Creek and Silver Creek). I wondered if the creeks might have somehow diverged since the map was printed or if one was just unnamed, but ultimately I wasn’t able to paddle up either of them. They were both choked with deadfall debris.

There’s a boat ramp after these streams on the Proctor side. It’s a nice one but I’m not sure if it’s public. There are also some really nice houses in here and there were a couple kids riding what looked to be motocross type bikes around the periphery of one. It looked like fun. By this point the view on the right is no longer that of Beattyville but of a railroad track (CSX presumably) which is atop a second tier along the bank with wooded hills and occasional rock cliffs thrown in. I’d love to take a train ride all through here. I think it would be nice to get that perspective too since, as I recall from last year, this track will follow the river for quite a while. Not sure if that's possible though...

At the curve left at mile 254 there was a little creek which emerged from under a little concrete bridge on the right. This must be the Marrey Creek. On the left side the scenery had turned to farmland after Proctor, and there appeared to be one particularly large and wide open farm here. In fact, it’s only significantly wooded spot was a haven for the cows which a saw lolling around on the bank of this curve. I also noticed at this point that there were a ton of gar fish which jumped out of my way in all directions as I paddled. I see so many of these fish and not many others. Maybe it’s because they swim closer to the surface than the other fish do…

Anyway, after this bend there’s a straight section for about a mile and then at mile 253 Mike’s Branch enters. It was almost dry today though. I got really lucky here because I was able to take one of the best shots ever of a blue heron. One of them flew in just behind me in what looked like the pursuit of a fish. Later, I'd encounter another bold heron and get some more shots. This was unreal. I’d tried for almost a couple years to get some good heron shots and today I get several. Go figure…

At first I had a problem though - the battery in my camera died just after I saw the first one! My camera only uses about one tenth of a battery! Why is this? Oddly, the batteries cease to work in the camera but I'm still able to use them in other things. In fact, I powered my I-pod dock speakers for an entire Keeneland horse racing session with just one set of batteries left over from this camera.

The river bends to the right just after mile 253 and Bakers Bar is supposedly on the right but wasn’t evident to me. Neither was the Dirksen Branch which comes in just after mile 252. I must have gone right by it! The landscape at this point is forested hills on the left with farmland on the right – a scenery shift from bank to bank, the frequency of which will come to characterize the entire length of this river. Therefore, if you ever get too bored don’t worry. Things will soon change! The community of Belle Point is receded from the bank on the right at mile 251. I couldn’t see it from the river.

Contrary Creek comes in after this. Last year I noted that it lived up to its name because it was the only creek around with any water in it. Today I was able to paddle up about a quarter mile under a railroad bridge before debris stopped me. When I emerged I paddled all the way to the other bank and noticed a lot more gar. There’s no ledge to the bank over here. It slopes gently down.

Between mile 251 and 250 the river goes into a somewhat sharp left curve, and upon rounding it there’s another long straightaway which goes on for a little more than a mile before you get to the dam. It was just prior to reaching this dam that I spotted an interesting structure back through the trees which I hadn’t noticed last year. Made of brick, it was actually curved on the side which faced the river and there were several spots where windows may once have been. I’d be interested to get the background on this structure. If anyone could advise me I'd be grateful.

As for the dam, each time I come to one of these structures my every nerve perks up. I am always acutely aware of my every move in relation to one, so I hugged close to the right side (the lock side for this particular dam - it varies) and I do mean CLOSE! I never take any chances. To go over a dam means almost certain death (the second picture was taken with zoom).

Both the dams and the water that runs over them can be extremely deceptive. 2 men died a couple weeks ago downstream of a dam. One was apparently swimming in water that was calm on the surface. Beneath it though, it was swirling so hard that it pulled him under and, as I hear so often in cases like this, a friend went in to try and save him but instead drowned himself. It really puts my heart into my throat – the ultimate sacrifice for a friend. Therefore, my best advice is not to go near these.

Anyway, I really inched along and slowly reached the lock side. They call them lock and dams. The dam is where the water goes over and generally it stretches about 2/3 over the river. The rest will be the lock. This is the area where the boats are able to go around the dam provided there’s someone to operate them. However, as far as I know only 1 out of the 14 on the Kentucky River is operable and even then only on occasion in Frankfort. The rest seem abandoned.

My vision is to have so many kayaks and canoes on the river along with the powerboats that they’ll have to hire someone to do this at every dam full time. This vision also includes having public parks with campgrounds at each one (kind of like at dam 10 at Boonesboro State Park). Of course, these grounds would have to be monitored very closely due to the inherent danger of the dams, but maybe something could be done architecturally to mitigate this risk and allow for beaches and/or swimming areas as well. I think it would be wonderful if this could be done!

Anyway, I’d explain the locking procedure if I knew how it works but, suffice it to say, the lock area should be calm enough for boats to drift up. Nevertheless, I'm still incredibly careful and it was only after I’d reached the very corner of the lock did I stop to take a look. There were some steps that went up, but they’d really been silted over with dirt and debris that had turned to mud. This made them slippery but I decided to try and climb them. There were about 10 steps.

Upon reaching the top I observed that there was a chain link fence surrounding the area. Someone had knocked this particular section down, however, and I decided to go a little way in to take some pictures. Doing so, I discovered that there was a park here too. Well, thus distracted, I didn’t properly negotiate the fence which had a bottom portion that protruded a little bit upwards. I tripped over it and fell hard onto the fence and the pavement beneath. My hands had been on the camera so I wasn’t able to break much of my fall. El Clutzo strikes again! :) The picture below was taken looking downstream. That's the bridge at Heidelberg, Kentucky in the background and that's where I'll be starting from next time.

On the way back I found that the gar were still out in force. I took more pictures of them and also of the place where the South Fork meets the converged North/Middle Fork to form the main river. Having done this, I said goodbye to the ducks at the ramp and left for home.

When heading home at other times I’d left around dusk, but I was earlier today. I can’t describe this exactly but there’s something really neat about driving back (North in my case) on KY11 at dusk. This is the case for me around Natural Bridge Park but especially for some reason around the community of Torrent, Kentucky. Torrent seems to consist of a resort, a convenience store and a couple houses from all that you can see from the road, yet the convenience/liquor store is the coolest looking one I may ha ve ever seen. The resort is also amazing to look at since it’s perched amid a semicircle of sheer rock cliffs which tower over it.

DIRECTIONS:

At the junction of KY 11 and KY 52 in Beattyville turn East on East Main Street. Go to the second street (the aptly named Water Street) and take a right. The street dead ends at the boat ramp. There’s plenty of room for many vehicles. There is no fee to use the ramp.