Cumberland River Carry Me On Down The Line

Day 131  | Paducah to Grand Rivers  |  7.5 Hours  |  50 Miles  |  1 Lock 

The Looper fleet was prepared to leave the dock at 8:00 this morning. Mother Nature had other plans for us. During the night, dense fog settled over the Ohio River. WeatherBug said it would clear in a few hours, so we waited and passed the time. Barry roamed the dock and I worked my way to within 50 pages of finishing my book. Barry came in at 9:45 and said everyone was ready to leave. Within a few minutes we were heading back upriver and dodging large masses of debris. We only heard one "thump" and for that we were thankful. It was very difficult to dodge them all.

Eleven miles later we saw the bifurcated channel marker indicating we had reached the confluence of the Ohio and Cumberland Rivers. We veered off to the right and found less current, trash, and tow/barge activity on the Cumberland. Wet markings on the eroded banks indicated the water level has recently been two to three feet higher. Several large quarries dotted our path and they were busy loading barges with gravel both by conveyor and using the massive mining dump trucks like we saw at the Caterpillar museum in Peoria.

The sky cleared and the afternoon turned warm. It was a scenic trip down the Cumberland with bright green trees, rock formations, and heron posing in such a way that I just had to pick up the camera.

We traveled in a group of six boats and tried to run the same speed and stay together.

The ripple from our wake cast a nice pattern on the water. We neared the I-24 bridge which our guidebooks reported to have a clearance of 94 feet. The marker boards indicated a clearance of 75 feet, meaning the water in the Cumberland River is 19 feet higher than normal. We only had a 30 minute wait for entrance into the Barkley Lock. Each boat tied up to their own floating bollard for the ride up.

The lock doors opened and we departed in single file. One mile later our flotilla turned into Green Turtle Bay Marina just in time for docktails. We will stay here tomorrow and get a little laundry done, go for a walk, and plan our next week's journey on down the Tennessee River. Today's trip reminded me of Cumberland River, a not-so-old bluegrass song by Dailey & Vincent.

I left old Kentucky in a blinding fog headed for the southland ...
Along about [Smithland] I saw the sky turn blue ...
Cumberland River carry me on down the line to sunny Tennessee ...
Cumberland River let me feel that southern breeze.