Paddle Pick-Up

This Saturday was not so much a paddling adventure but was certainly an adventure. I never thought we would have pulled out so many tires and the amount of garbage that we did, but with 32 volunteers we certainly put the dent into the cleanup of the Beech Fork that we were hoping for, and more.



We ran 6 canoes from the fairgrounds to 31E and had 4 wheelers, a tractor and trailer shuttling garbage up the hill at the bridge. We estimate that we pulled out 125 tires and around 1 ton of trash from the river. Next year we might go from 49 bridge to the fairgrounds and do it in May to coincide with the National River Cleanup week.
Everyone put in a lot of hard work this day and the preplanning could not have been more perfectly executed. Also the cookout afterwards was a huge success.

Rockcastle Day Trip

300cfs

Jay and I got in a day trip to the Rockcastle. A great river day with lots of combat rolling for me, the has helped my confidance on the river I think. After jumping into a whole on Screaming Right last week and now getting worked a touch in the Narrows I feel better about my cobat rolling. I am calm under the water in rapids. The details: We left at 7:30am from Louisville and shoved off at 11:30am on the river. The shuttle setup and getting to the put-in is long. Stair steps was god, we walked around Beech Narrows which looked very grabby this day and then had a blast on the 6 drops of the lower narrows. The lake was at 717ft, this gave us 6 rapids in the Narrows, covering one small rapid that I know of, that was exposed last time at 711ft. So there really aren't a whole bunch of rapids for such a long shuttle, but the Rockcastle is beautiful and no one else goes down there. We got lost trying to get back out to Highway 80. The road signs and maps don't jive very well. When taking Squib-Ano road out take a left at the Adkins/Arthur crossing. I may be getting to a point where I would like some more excitement in my kayaking, but I still love the Rockcastle the best. I think the rating on AW.org needs to be class II-III(IV) Next time I go I hope to get pictures of all the rapids and update the website on AW.

Cumberland Below The Falls

1500cfs



Jay, Scott and I headed for Corbin, KY yesterday and ran the section of whitewater below the Falls of the Cumberland. It's a bout a 3 hours door to shove off after gearing up, checking in, walking down to shore from the parking lot. We set up a shuttle through Sheltowee Trace, it just sucks having to wait around after the trip for a ride back to our car and to waiting for the kayaks to come back to the outfitter. But the trip was well worth the visit. We had a great time, Jay sam Center Rock, Scott styled it. Scott swam Screaming Right, Jay styled it. I was flipping all over the place improving on my combat roll. I thought I had taken a bad line on Screaming right, but it turned out to be okay. We really should be running this stretch more often since it is so close to home. But it still falls short to the Rockcastle.