2013 is here, spring rains are (hopefully) filling the creeks, and the Elkhorn Paddlers are ready for action. Check out our cruises for the year. See you on the river.
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Last Saturday we had 10 paddlers on the South Fork. As promised, it was floatable all year, the catch being IF you choose the right channel each time. By seeing where others got stuck I never had to get out, but did have to push off rocks a few times. It was narrow and tree-lined, and quite pretty, with a nice steady current. Only one place that could be called a rapid, with big rocks in the middle, where one rock caught a paddler high and dry on top of it. I'd never seen anyone stuck with their entire boat out of the water before. It looked like the tide had gone out on him. We also saw a monster snapping turtle hanging over a log and when we had just about decided it was dead, it moved it's head. We gave it plenty of space.
There was quite a bit of freeway traffic noise as we floated parallel to I-64, crossed under it, and then back parallel in the other direction, but it was mostly peaceful from then on. We saw one other group of paddlers who took out at their house right on the creek. The last 1/4th mile was the shallowest and where some had to get out. Many thanks to Wayne for being so helpful at the slightly slippery put-in and getting people off rocks and for carrying way more than his share of boats at the takeout. We all appreciated you doing so much.
Some of us went to the new Midway School Bakery afterwards to visit some more.
I plan to scout upstream of this section to see if we can make it longer next time.
Nancy Moore

Five Elkhorn Paddlers went to Paintsville Lake last Tuesday to explore some more of it. We'd been told the south end of the lake near the state park was as pretty as Grayson Lake, so naturally we started our explorations at the north end of the lake several years ago. This time we put in at the same place but went south on a branch of the lake called Little Paint Creek. The lake was really low and the boat ramp didn't even reach the water, which meant we almost had the place to ourselves. We saw one boat fishing, and a pontoon that came to empty the trash cans at the ramp.
The water was the clearest I've seen in any lake except Dale Hollow. We could look down about 6-8 feet and see the seaweed-like grass growing on the bottom along the shore, with little fish darting in and out of it.
Some of the rhododendron were blooming and I decided I like the mountain laurel much better. We also saw a lot of big gelatinous blobs that are a kind of freshwater sponge, called Bryozoans, and they look like soft-ball sized balls of frog eggs or something, but are tiny animals, and are mostly attached to underwater limbs. We saw an amazing one that was about 2 feet wide, it looked like a giant brain. We've seen these on the Licking River before but we all forgot what they were. We had to dodge stumps in a few places, and ended up going up a shady creek until we finally ran out of water and had to turn back. The map showed the creek branching in another direction but with the low water level we
couldn't find access to it. There were cliffs all along the lake but
most were hidden by the foliage. A few cliffs came right down into the water though. My favorite part was poking up the creek at the end.
Next year we'll go to the state park and see if it compares to Grayson Lake there.
It was a great day on the lake with good friends.
Nancy Moore

We had another great time at Grayson Lake April 28th and 29th. I went over on Friday and met up with Chick and we explored Newcomb Creek, a creek joining the lake on the upper end. It was very pretty, lots of high cliffs, and very narrow and curvy. It was fun not knowing what would be around the next corner. We turned back after encountering a tree across that Chick couldn't squeeze under. It took us about 50 minutes to paddle back out to the main lake. Saturday morning five of us put in way up the lake near the Laurel Interpretive Center and headed downstream. We found a wonderful waterfall up a short bay and had lunch there on a gravel bar just in front of the falls. Soon we came to Newcomb Creek so we went up it and got past the tree another 10-15 minutes before big log jams stopped us. At the takeout at the new ramp the Corps of Engineers had just finished, the locals were pulling in
hybrid striped bass one after the other using green night crawlers. In
spite of the 70% chance of storms forecast, it didn't rain until 10 PM that night, just as we were finishing toasting marshmallows over the campfire.
Sunday's put-in was a bit of a carry down slippery rocks to the lake close by a waterfall. While we ran the shuttle Tom built us rock steps down the little drop-off to the water. No crawling down backwards while
trying to avoid the poison ivy! Thanks Tom! Just after we launched
here came five kayakers from the Southeastern Ohio Paddlers, so we chatted with them awhile before heading out. I was starting to wonder where all the waterfalls were when we came to a bay that had two falls at the end, then another a short distance away. Some risked the spray and paddled behind them. We spotted a bald eagle flying overhead soon after, along with another without the white head, perhaps a youngster.
The cliffs were just amazing near the end, towering over us and curving out over the lake. After 4 or 5 more waterfalls we reached the takeout and, sadly, had to leave.
Nancy Moore

Here is the early list of paddle trips offered for this year. If there's water you want to paddle, but don't see listed, consider leading the trip yourself. On all trips, PLEASE contact the trip leader for most accurate information, conditions and plans.
SYOTR

Here are minutes from our last general meeting. Notice to all that the next meeting is scheduled for March 4 and will include our Cruise Planning for 2012.

This is Wayne Eddins' account of the River rat cruise from last fall.

Thanks to Nancy Moore for organizing this event and letting us know how it went. Choose Read More for full report.

Nancy Moore is leading a trip on the Green River in celebration of the 30th anniversaryof the Elkhorn Paddlers.
Click on Read More for details.