- campsite at Island Creek Boat Ramp, Manchester, Ohio
Ohio River Journal - 2004
June 2004
Sunday, June 6, 2004:
My brother, Dave, drove to our farm in Pleasant Plain, Ohio, in the afternoon. We packed up, had supper, and left at 6:15 p.m. My wife, Therese, and my boys, Stephen (4½ years old) and Billy (3 years old), drove us to Manchester, Ohio, where we had ice cream and then went to Island Creek Boat Ramp to set up camp.
Dave and I camped right at the edge of the Ohio River overlooking Manchester Island #2. A barge came downriver carrying coal and passed right between us and the island. My boys were thrilled. Dave took some nice sunset pictures over the river. At this time of the year, there were not many mosquitoes, so we were able to sit out for a while after the sun went down. We heard coyotes calling across the river. Dave and I were awakened several times during the night by the impressive sights of barges passing us as they made their way downriver.
Dave and I awoke around 7:15 a.m. to fog and a northern oriole calling from a sycamore tree beside our tent. What an awesome campsite we had, right next to the river with the birds calling outside! We ate oatmeal, struck camp, and packed up our boat.
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As we launched at 9:45 a.m., a downriver barge passed us. We paddled upriver, a tough slog against the current, until we rounded Manchester Island #2 and could paddle downriver between it and Manchester Island #1. Both are part of the Ohio River Islands National Wildlife Refuge. When we first launched, we noticed a pretty good current between our campsite and Manchester Island #2, but once we got to the main river and the water spread out before us, the current diminished to nearly slack water.
The river banks here were mainly uninhabited and were covered with mud from recent high water. The water had been as high as 45 feet just a week ago, but it was now down to about 32 feet, still slightly above normal; the effects of the high water were easy to see, however. Besides the mud-covered riverbanks, the river water was silty brown, and there was much debris (wood and trash) floating downriver.
The hills here were quite different from what Reuben Gold Thwaites described in 1897. He wrote in Afloat on the Ohio that downriver from Manchester, "a large proportion of the hills are completely denuded of their timber, and patched with rectangular fields of green, brown, and yellow." Today, second-growth timber has covered nearly all of the hills, and most of the farms are in the fertile bottomlands along the river.
Dave and I stopped for lunch at the mouth of Crooked Creek in Kentucky (MM 401.5) where a railroad trestle crosses. We cooked up Mountain House "Sweet and Sour Pork with Rice" (very good) on our MSR Dragonfly backpacking stove (an excellent piece of equipment) by balancing it on jumbled limestone. Upon trying to re-enter the kayak, I sank calf-deep in the recently-deposited mud and almost lost a sandal.
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After lunch, we passed a large and interesting limestone business (Dravo Corporation) beside Cabin Creek in Kentucky (MM 403.2) and a Dayton Power and Light plant in Ohio (MM 404.5). We watched two towboats shuttling empty barges around these businesses. It is interesting to see the commerce taking place on the Ohio River. Downriver from these industrial sites, an interesting thing happened at the mouth of Little Three Mile Creek in Ohio (MM 405.7). There was so much water disgorged by this little creek that it caused confused water where it met the Ohio River.
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Up to this point, we had seen no other boats on the river, but we now passed four upriver-bound barges in a row. The first was pushing dredging barges, the second, coal barges, and the third and fourth, empty barges. They threw up about a two-foot wake behind them but caused no problem for our Folbot touring kayak.
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Just upriver from Maysville, Kentucky, we took a break at their very nice municipal park and boat ramp (MM407.0). When we set forth again, we passed under the Simon Kenton Bridge, a beautiful, old suspension bridge, which was built in 1931, linking Maysville and Aberdeen, Ohio (MM408.3). This bridge was designed by John A. Roebling, who also designed the John A. Roebling Bridge in Cincinnati and the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City. Several miles downriver, we passed under the William H. Harsha Bridge, a recently-completed cable stayed bridge, which all traffic was using while the old suspension bridge underwent repairs.
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Just after Three Mile Creek in Ohio, we took a break on some barges that had been placed along the Ohio river bank to keep it from eroding (one was built in 1956 and one in 1945). We were again passed by two upriver-bound barges, one while we were taking our break and another shortly after we began paddling again. It was odd that we had been passed by no downriver-bound barges. The river banks between towns here seemed to be more populated than the ones we had passed earlier in the day.
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After passing the East Kentucky Power Cooperative plant (MM 414.2), we noticed that the two red nun buoys that were supposed to mark the channel around the Charleston Bar (MM 415.1) were missing. Maybe they had been washed downriver during the recent high water.
Having paddled more than twenty miles already, we finally paddled up Eagle Creek in Ohio (MM 415.6) to our campsite at Eagle Creek Marina, arriving at 6:15 p.m. We got a great waterfront site under some willows for $10 (the only campsite that we would pay for on the trip). After setting up camp, we cooked and eagerly ate Backpacker’s Pantry "Thai Spicy Peanut with Rice and Vegetables" (excellent), canned green beans, and Gatorade cooled by ice (a rare treat, which is not often available on a touring kayak camping trip) that we purchased at the campground. After showering and calling our wives and kids, we hit the sack around 9:30 or 10:00 p.m. It had been a full day!
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In the morning, Dave and I arose, ate some oatmeal, packed up, and were on the water by 10:00 a.m. We passed the town of Ripley, Ohio (MM 417.3) with the Rankin House (an abolitionist's house that was used as a station on the Underground Railroad) on a hill overlooking the town and river. Farther downriver, we had lunch of Alpine Aire "Tuna with Noodles and Cheese" at a marina on Straight Creek (MM 421.7).
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Mid-afternoon, we stopped for a break and snack at the Augusta (KY) City Boat Ramp on Bracken Creek (MM 426.4), a very nice park. As we left the park, we floated past the beautiful town of Augusta, Kentucky (MM 427.2). From the river, we could see many nice, old houses that had been kept up very well and that lent an historical look to the city. Here also was a ferry that operated between Augusta and the Ohio river bank.
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Farther downriver, we encountered some evidence of the vast power of the river during high water. On the Ohio river bank were many houses (~MM 429.0 to MM 430.5) that had wooden docks extending out into the river. As we passed, only the pilings of the heaviest and sturdiest remained. Some people were out repairing or replacing the docks, but many more were completely destroyed. The power of the Ohio River was evident.
Supper today was probably the best meal of the trip. We stopped at a boat dock on the Ohio side of the river (MM 430.3) {the dock was heavy-duty steel and had wheels on the end so that it could be rolled up to higher ground during high water}. There, we prepared Backpacker’s Pantry "Southwestern Smoked Salmon Pasta" (excellent), which not only had a tasty sauce, but also came with a vacuum-sealed packet of non-freeze-dried smoked salmon to add to the pasta and sauce. The cost of the meal was nearly twice the cost of the other meals on this trip, but it sure tasted great!
After supper, we continued downriver to Crooked Run Nature Preserve and Chilo Lock #34 Park (MM 433.7 and MM 434.5), both in Ohio. There we met up with Chris Clingman, the director of both parks. Chris had set us up in one of the yurts at the Chilo Lock #34 Park and graciously helped us move our gear up from the park’s boat ramp to the yurt. A yurt is a traditional Mongolian tent, which consists of a circular wall of wood-lattice-reinforced canvas topped by a conical roof. This yurt had a wooden floor, a roof vent, four windows, and a wood-burning stove and can be used for winter camping. It was quite large and was capable of holding forty-seven people. As you can imagine, we had quite a bit of room to spread out.
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As it neared sunset, Dave and I paddled out on the Ohio River and took some pictures for Chris of the old Chilo Lock and Dam #34 pump house, which is scheduled to be restored and will then be home to a museum about Ohio River locks and dams. U.S. Lock and Dam #34 was one of the many lock and dam combinations along the Ohio River until the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began building larger locks and dams that each replaced many of the smaller ones. It was originally constructed in 1925, but the lock and dam structures in the river were removed when Meldahl Lock and Dam was built in 1964. The pump house, water tower, and one of the staff houses have survived. During this trip we passed U.S. Locks and Dams #33 (MM 405.1), #34 (MM 434.1), #35 (MM 451.0), and #36 (MM 460.9).
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After quickly phoning our wives and having an evening snack, Dave and I called it a day. The yurt was spacious and comfortable but quite warm until we opened the door and turned on a box fan.
The next morning, Chris again helped us haul our gear, this time back down to the river. After a breakfast of oatmeal, we were on the Ohio River by 10:00 a.m. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at the Chilo Lock #34 Park and looked forward to visiting it, as well as the adjacent Crooked Run Nature Preserve (one of the best birding spots in southern Ohio), again in the future. The two parks were top-notch, as was their energetic, knowledgeable, and helpful director.
On the way to the locks at Meldahl Lock and Dam (MM 436.2), we passed two barges that were tied up, awaiting their turn to lock through. As we approached the locks, we could see that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was working on the long (1200-foot) lock, so the short (600-foot) lock was the only one being used.
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Because we had no VHF radio, we proceeded to the end of the land-side lock wall and pulled the chain there for pleasure craft. We were soon motioned over by a Corps worker who was talking to the lockmaster over a radio. The lockmaster indicated that we would need to wait until the barge that was currently locking through and one of the two tied-up barges locked through downriver. Then we could go through after that. We were told that it would be a wait of about two hours because the barges had to be broken up and locked through in two sections in order to fit in the short lock.
We asked the Corps worker if there was somewhere from which we could observe the barges locking through, and he offered that we could tie up to the U.S. Corps of Engineers towboat that was attached to the lock repair barge and watch from aboard the vessel. This gave us a fantastic viewpoint from which to see the locking-through process. When the first barge had finished locking through, one of the tied-up barges came down and pulled into the lock, disconnected the first half of its load, and backed out with the rest of the load. After the first half had gone through (and been controlled by the downriver towboat that had previously gone through), the upriver towboat took the rest of its load through and reconnected on the downriver side.
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During the shuffling, the lockmaster came out to the end of the lock wall and yelled to us to be ready to go through next. The second barge that had been tied up when we came from Chilo was tied up to the lock wall behind us, awaiting its turn, and another had taken its place at the mooring upriver. We reboarded the boat and paddled out to get into position. I was excited! I had been hoping to pass through a lock in my Folbot for quite some time.
Finally, three hours after we had arrived at the lock, the moment had arrived. The huge upriver doors opened and Dave and I were motioned into the lock. About halfway down the huge (to us) lock, we pulled up beside one of the floating bollards and held on to it. The doors closed behind us and the water began to drop. We were the only boat (seventeen feet long) in the entire 600-foot-long lock. The water drained quickly but without much turbulence (though, I have heard that there is more turbulence when locking through upriver). Soon, ten minutes after we had entered the lock, we had dropped thirty feet, and the downriver doors began to open. As we paddled out of the lock, we headed straight for the front of an upriver-bound barge that entered the lock as soon as we were out of the way. What an interesting and exhilarating experience!
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Having had nothing to eat except a quick snack while waiting to lock through, we passed the restricted area downriver of the dam and crossed over to an inviting sand beach on the Kentucky side for lunch (MM 437.2). This was the largest of the very few sandy beaches that we saw along the Ohio River. We surmised that it was because it was directly below the dam and so very little silt came through to cover the beach with mud. We ate lunch of pitas, peanut butter, summer sausage, canned green beans, and canned corn.
As we ate, we noticed that a second upriver-bound barge had started to move from the mooring area toward the lock, and a third was coming upriver toward the mooring area. The loss of the long lock had certainly caused a backup. So far, we had seen four downriver-bound barges and three upriver-bound barges, and only three of the seven had locked through so far. One of the ones that had been moored upriver from the lock when we went by this morning at 10:30 had still not come down through the lock.
By this time it was almost 3:00 p.m., and we had covered less than three miles. We were beginning to get concerned about getting some mileage under our belts, but as we got into the boat to start out again, we heard thunder. That forced us back to the sandy river bank, where we waited as an impressive thunderstorm rolled in. We took some pictures of the approaching storm and then battened down the hatches and, from under some of the shorter of the willows along the beach, watched the lightning show and the wall of rain move up the river.
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Finally we got back on the river and headed for New Richmond. Interestingly, as we passed the upriver-bound barge that was waiting in the mooring area, we noticed that it had moored itself during the storm by gently driving its forward barge up onto the beach. Dave and I took a quick break at a ramp at Neville, Ohio (MM 438.9), and continued on. We passed the Cincinnati Gas and Electric Company’s Zimmer Power Plant (a plant designed for nuclear power, but that now runs on coal) on the Ohio river bank (MM 443.3).
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Just downriver, where Big Indian Creek enters the Ohio River, we passed the tiny town of Point Pleasant, Ohio (MM 445.2). The town is famous, however small, as the birthplace of Ulysses S. Grant, the commander in chief of the Union forces during the Civil War and the eighteenth President of the United States.
Shortly after, we stopped at a small, rocky peninsula on the Ohio river bank (MM 445.6) for supper. We had Alpine Aire "Shrimp Newburg" and then quickly continued downriver toward New Richmond, Ohio. As we got within one and a half miles of our destination, a headwind picked up like nothing I had ever paddled into before. We had waves breaking over our bow, when minutes before the river had been still, and each of us was fighting to keep a hold on our paddles.
Just after we reached Steamboat Marina in New Richmond (MM 450.1), the winds died down again. Joe Vogel, the owner of the marina, had told us that we could camp on his beach behind the marina, so we made our way back there and set up camp. We had pop with ice (a luxury for us on this trip) and a cheeseburger from Joe’s floating restaurant. Just as we were getting ready for bed (about 10:30 p.m.), the barge that we had seen moored above the Meldahl Lock and Dam at 10:30 a.m. passed by New Richmond. It had undoubtedly been a long day of waiting for its crew. We fell asleep to the honking and quacking of the numerous domestic and wild geese and ducks that also made this beach their home and to the country music coming from the jukebox in the floating restaurant.
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Dave and I arose, had breakfast, broke camp, and were on the river by 9:30 a.m. During our stay, we had not run into Joe, the owner of the marina, but we appreciated his hospitality. {After returning home and calling to thank him, he said that he passed by our tent later on in the night but didn’t want to wake us}. Just before we left the marina, we saw a downriver-bound barge carrying what looked like temporary worker housing. The two barges in the load looked like they each had one hundred rooms.
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As soon as we launched from New Richmond, we passed the old U.S. Lock and Dam #35 building on the Kentucky river bank (MM 451.0) It looked identical to the Chilo Lock and Dam #34 building. The Ohio River was running well today. Dave and I estimated that during the first two days of the trip the river current averaged less than one mile per hour but that during yesterday and today it averaged between one and two miles per hour. That certainly gave a boost to our paddling!
Just down river from New Richmond, Cincinnati Gas and Electric’s W.C. Beckjord Power Plant came into view (MM 452.9). We took a break at a boat ramp on the Ohio river bank between Ten Mile Creek and Nine Mile Creek (MM 455.2) and then pulled up at the Washington Marine ramp (MM 460.3) for lunch. We were making great time on the river today. We had already done ten of the twenty miles today, and it wasn’t even noon. We chowed down on summer sausage, pita, canned peas, peanut butter, and dried cranberries and then relaxed for a little while before continuing.
After lunch we passed the old U.S. Lock and Dam #36 buildings in Kentucky (MM 460.9) (again, identical to the #34 and #35 buildings), River Bend and Coney Island Parks, both in Ohio (MM 461.2 to MM 462.0), and then under the I-275 bridge. Shortly thereafter, an Ohio Division of Watercraft patrol boat came over and checked our boat registration. When we had finished chatting with the officer, Dave and I noticed two old buildings on the Kentucky side marked on the charts as water intakes for Cincinnati, Ohio, and Covington, Kentucky. They were interesting because they were very ornate limestone and brick buildings (one looked like a castle turret) yet were only buildings for municipal water intakes.
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After passing the mouth of the Little Miami River in Ohio (MM 463.4), we pulled into the Four Seasons Marina on the Ohio river bank (MM 464.2) for a tasty break of ice cream and cold Gatorade. After calling Therese to let her know that we would be getting to Cincinnati earlier than we had planned, we shoved off on the last leg of our trip. As we paddled this next section of the Ohio River, we saw several airplanes taking off and landing at Lunken Airport in Ohio.
As we rounded the last of many bends in this section of the river, Cincinnati came into view. We passed under the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge (I-471), the L&N Railroad Bridge (for pedestrians now), and the Newport and Cincinnati Highway Bridge (U.S. Hwy 27). At last we landed on the cobblestones of the Cincinnati Public Landing in front of the 5/3 Bank Arena and within view of the beautiful John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge, which he designed in the 1860s. What a place to end the trip, the port of Cincinnati, with its long river history and its current-day riverfront parks dedicated to that proud history.
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We had made it! Dave and I arrived at about 4:00 p.m., took some arrival pictures, unloaded, and rested. Therese picked us up about 5:00 p.m., and we ordered some well-earned pizza on the way home.
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Miscellaneous Thoughts, Observations, and Reflections:
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Animals Identified along the Ohio River:
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