Eagle Creek (Mile 416) to
Today marked a first: Dummy forgot to tie his boat down to the car!!! It promptly slid right off!!!
Boom!
Sccccrrrraaaaaaaape….
It wasn’t a terribly bad omen though.
True, nothing really went as planned today, but everything worked out nicely
anyway. Besides,
I saw a section of the river that I hadn’t planned on paddling until later –
this one! I originally intended to put in from
Well, when I arrived I found some pretty amazing murals! Rosemary Clooney, a native of Maysville, was smiling down at me from one, and on another was a group of Indians out on a buffalo hunt. Apparently the river valley here used to be a pretty popular hunting ground! You can check out the artwork on Maysville’s website, or better yet, come on out and see it! There are 10 of these murals in total.
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The views from this spot with
the bridge going over the river are really nice and it looks like a
perfect fishing spot too, but it might not be the best place to put in a boat.
You’d have to park, walk your stuff through the little “tunnel” in the flood wall
seen in the photo above,
and then walk it down. I didn’t see a ramp. You might be better off
putting in across the river. Because…
As
I got on the road again and headed over the bridge to
Now at this point I must
confess to being a little torn as to how to describe things… I’ve been
writing these journals in an upriver fashion because that’s how I generally
recommend paddling if you’re out solo. You’ve simply got more
control of your situation that way. Today, however, I put in from an
upriver point for the sake of ease and paddled downriver, then back up.
Nevertheless, for the sake of continuity I’ve chosen to keep describing the
river from an
upriver perspective.
So... After paddling downriver to the mouth of Eagle Creek I begin this
narrative.
Eagle Creek is at mile 416.5, just downriver from the town of Ripley, Ohio. I didn’t paddle
in, however. It looked large enough to explore (in fact, I may have to come
back later and paddle it separately) but it also appeared to have quite a bit
of traffic. As I glance at the charts again, there appear to be 5
put-ins back there! Two of these are for the Eagle Creek Boat Club but
there's also a public ramp along with the
Eagle Creek Marina and the Eagle Creek Boat Dock.
From here I began paddling back upriver along a
fairly messy
The Lawrence Creek enters
just prior to this at mile 415 and loops around the back. I got in
about ¾ mile before I reached a split where it looked like a shelter had been
set up and a dog was barking at me. Unwilling to disturb the tranquility
of others, this was a bit too up-close-and-personal… I headed back.
This stream seems to mark the western boundary of Maysville.
Needless to say, when you get up to the power plant
at mile 414 there are likely to be a ton of barges around, and today was no
different. I navigated nearly to the middle of the river to avoid them
while being extremely wary of any towboats at the same time - not only the ones
on the river itself, but also the ones that you’re likely to see in the midst of
the barges. Often there’s one dedicated solely to a
large operation like this and you'll notice that it seems to be “on call” along the shoreline
throughout the day.
Such was the case here with the “City of
…and speaking of dangerous…
Just upriver from the power
plant at mile 413.5 there’s a spot that almost looks like a ramp. Then
there’s a water intake structure for the East Kentucky Rural Electric Corp and
it was here that I spotted a huge plume of churning water emanating from around
this structure. Thing is, it appeared to be maybe a couple dozen yards
into the water offshore. It looked similar to the water you see
churning in the immediate wake of a pushboat, but it was a bit larger in scope.
Whatever - it really spooked me. I paddled past the middle of the river to avoid
it. I sure am glad I
saw that churning water ahead of me. If I hadn’t I might have been in trouble.
I couldn’t make out the sign on this intake until I got back home and enlarged
the picture, but it read:
WARNING
DO NOT ANCHOR OR
OPERATE
WITHIN
75 YARDS
OF THIS STRUCTURE
FILTER BACKWASH MAY
CAPSIZE SMALL CRAFT
…..!!! (My
reaction, not part of the sign!).
Needless to say, I was very lucky today but I’ll certainly be much more watchful around structures like this in the future! I've posted the picture below so that any readers will know how to spot such this structure.
This occurrence led to a bit
of introspection for me. How is it that fate can seem to smile upon a
person while they’re engaged in certain activities while generally doing the
opposite otherwise? Why the dichotomy?
Well, I guess each person
will have to answer that question for themselves, but for me I can only come
up with one answer: this must be what I’m supposed to do. Wherever
you go, there you are! Yes, my boat did
slide off the car to start the day, but it didn’t end it – and neither did
this. I’ve found that when fate seems to have you backed up against a wall it’s best to keep your
eyes and your options open. You may just discover that there’s a door at the end of that
seemingly dead-end hallway! If there isn’t, wait for it...
Opportunity may eventually knock on the wall just before the door materializes.
I’ve had doors slam on me a few times, but I found that my past failures
had actually strengthened me to the point that I had the perseverance to wait
things out until I found something better. If you’re in a bad
situation please don’t give up!
Back to the river...
Across from all the activity in
Three Mile Creek enters from the
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As for Three Mile itself, it has a road bridge (US62/52) going over it almost immediately and then it curves to the right, eventually passing some old bridge supports. I made it back about ¾ miles until I rounded a bend and saw someone’s setup at the back. Since the creek looked like it dead-ended anyway, I headed back out.
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Once you get back to the river it looks like they’re setting up a park that’s
also on the
Meanwhile, across the river there are some more
discarded barges along a shaded, park-like shore. I got what I think were my
best pictures of the bridge from this point as Marathon's pushboat
"Speedway" was going under. When I first saw it this span had really caught
me by surprise because it felt like I’d only just passed under the
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Once you pass under this bridge the shorelines will
seem to switch scenery.
Then, at about mile 409.5 there’s an interesting spot with an old pier set up and there were a few old and halfway submerged watercraft here, one of which appears to have been an old towboat. The spot may be part of the CSX operation, and the charts indicate that a water intake for the H & E Pogue Distillery is near this spot too, but I must have missed it. (As I now research it, Pogues ceased operations here in 1950, but it looks like they may be making a comeback http://www.oldpogue.com/News.htm!)
You’re now fully in Maysville at this point, and it’s
got a 3-tiered row of houses with forested hills as a backdrop (there may even
be a fourth tier up there - I couldn’t quite tell). The railroad track, as
mentioned, is directly alongside the river. Then comes
At the time I was paddling
by, about dusk, the setting sun was shining its last beams of light on the
downtown area and a neon sign caught my eye onshore. I decided to try and
find out what it was. It turned out to be Caproni’s (I think).
They’ve really got you covered on Italian food out here! I also passed by
a place called Pasquale’s as I was coming into town along with another pizza
place that I forgot the name of - Mike’s, I think?
Anyway, the charts indicate that the Lively Lady Marina is on the
Next up came my put-in location in
The
aforementioned
Before reaching my endpoint today I had a couple
barges pass me within a short period of time, Ingram Barges Harllee Branch Jr. (http://www.ingrambarge.com),
and American Electric Power’s D & R Boney (http://www.aepriverops.com).
I’ve mentioned Ingram Barge before, and they seem to have more towboats
operating on the
At any rate, the first of a
few little surprises greeted me once I reached my endpoint at the ramp at mile
407. Turns out, there’s a very small cove back here that I missed the last
time, kind of a little “bowl” along the banks of which were parked quite a few
RV’s (the park also offers that service and you can get more information at the
City of Maysville website link above).
My next little surprise - or should I say my second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth surprises awaited me when I got back to my put-in point in Aberdeen. If you’re out on the water you just never know what you’ll run into at the ramps - especially solo and after dark. What kinds of people? Will they be friendly? Will their dogs be friendly? You just never know! I haven’t yet had a problem, but you still have to be prepared for anything and I think a certain amount of anxiety is healthy. These are the only points in my excursions that I wish I wasn’t traveling alone. Well, today I kind of wasn’t…
There at the little pier (picture above was taken earlier in the day) was a father with 4 children taking in the peacefulness of the river amidst the fading light of day. “Was it scary?” One of the children asked me about paddling the river...
I was thinking: “Not when
you’re greeted at the end of your trip by such a nice family!”, but instead I
just mentioned that you have to get way over to the side when the barges come
by, other than that it’s OK.
I’ll not soon forget this family. What a great
day on the
DIRECTIONS:
From
After crossing take a left at
the “T” and then make another left on the 6th street (Market Place).
The ramp is at the end of this street.