Tennessee, 10/23 & 24: Wash Out & LBL | |
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SATURDAY, 10/23/21: WASH OUT
Today was an all-day soaker. It was the first complete rain day we have had in weeks, if not months. All we accomplished was to drive down to Paducah, then up the Ohio River on the Kentucky side, ride the free ferry back to Illinois, followed the Ohio River up to the tiny river village of Golconda, and back to camp. We barely got our of the van.
During the summer of 1968, just after my sophmore year in high school, my sister moved to New Orleans. I helped drive her and her two daughters, Kack and Mo, to New Orleans and assisted her in getting settled.
After that, I took the Greyhound Bus down to visit her, and roam New Orleans, every chance I could - Thanksgiving break, Christmas break, Easter break, summer break….. The bus ride was a grueling 40-hour slog, but it was dirt cheap. Anyway, we always stopped in Paducah at around 2 am for a 20-minute break (we stopped in every two-bit town for a 20-minute break). So, I have been to Paducah a dozen times, but I never actually saw it.
I can’t say I saw much of it today, either. We drove up and down the main downtown streets. There were some very promising-looking buildings, and I wish we could have taken our typical downtown zig-zag stroll. It just wasn’t to be.
The free ferry at Cave-In-Rock was nice, but it was raining so we didn’t get out of the van. We drove through Elizabethtown, a quaint river village, but we didn’t get out of the van. It was raining. We followed the Ohio River for 30 miles along a single-lane gravel road. There was some nice photo ops, but we didn’t get out of the van. It was raining. You get the general idea. The few photos we did get were mostly through the driver's side window.
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We spent most of day in the van driving along the Ohio River. | |
A large house in Golconda, Illinois, just a block away from the Ohio River. | |
The single-lane dirt road that paralleled the Ohio River. It went through bottomlands planted with corn, and it went through wooded areas with finger and oxbow lakes left over from what used to be back sloughs of the Ohio River. | |
A long, skinny, and muddy lake just a few hundred feet from the Ohio River. | |
The woods in the bottom lands resemble a jungle. | |
A good portion of the bottomland was planted in corn. | |
There was one spot that we stumbled upon, the Kincaid Mounds State Historic Site, tucked away down the remote single-lane gravel road. Apparently, a Native American community once thrived at the site. This was one place that we got out in the rain to read an info plaque. | |
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SUNDAY, 10/24/21: LBL
Our goal today is to get an elusive campsite at the Fenton Campground right in the center of the Land Between The Lakes National Recreational Area (LBL). The LBL straddles a long strip of land between the Tennesee River and the Cumberland River just before they empty into the Ohio River. It is roughly 10 miles wide and 40 miles long. To provide flood control, the two rivers were dammed up to form the giant Kentrucky Lake (Tennesee River) and equally big Barkley Lake (Cumberland River).
The LBL has three tiers of campgrounds: 1) Developed. There are four of these large sites with electricity and water, much like the Oak Point Campground we just left. 2) Self-Service. 11 of these campgrounds are scattered throughout the LBL. These are primitive campgrounds with defined and numbered sites but no amenities. 3) Basic. For true boondocking, basic campgrounds are just a field or the end of a forest road. There aren’t any defined sites, no picnic tables or fire rings. They might have a vault toilet but they might not.
Our target, Fenton Campground, is a hybrid. It is the only self-service campground that provides electricity. And the location is smack dab in the middle of the LBL, perfect for exploration. To get a spot, I implemented my strategy to the fullest. We timed our move for a Sunday, when all the weekenders were packing up for home. We timed our arrival for 10:30 am to grab a site from the early birds that like to pack up and leave as soon as possible.
And how did all that work out? Drum roll, please. Well, we got to Fenton and no one was there. It was completely empty. After seeing it, I could understand why. It is a weird campground.
Unlike all the other LBL campgrounds, it is close to a fourlane highway. There is some road noise. The sites are numbered 17 thourgh 28. What happened to 1 through 16? I guess they vanished. Most of the sites are crammed together and practically hang off the side of a hill making leveling a camper an exercise in magic or levitation. Big rigs wouldn’t fit in 80% of the sites even if they could get level.
There were two big private and level sites at the end of the row. Since we had the pick of the litter, we took site 26. It was not only level, but the camper pad was gravel. With a lot of rain in the forcast we reasoned that the other, mostly dirt site, would become muddy.
So here is my theory. The big boys with their road mansions probably flocked to the fully developed campgrounds. Not needing electricity, the tent campers took advantage of the boondocking in the basic or non-electric self-service camping area. Fenton, with its goofy layout and road noise, just didn’t attract either. That left just us. We got the only decent site, electricity for cheap, and all the privacy we’d want. The road noise? We only sleep at our campsites. The rest of day is out and about. Bottomline, we’ll take it.
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Time to get the lay-of-the-land. Once set up, we drove 2 miles to the Golden Pond Visitor’s Center to gather intelligence. Armed with maps and advice from the park’s ranger-lady, we started driving through the Elk and Bison Prairie. For 5 bucks a car, we got to drive a 10 mile’ish looping road at 10 mph looking for elk or bison.
At the Custer State Park in the Black Hills of South Dakota, we drove a similar wildlife prairie drive and came across a herd of a 1000 or so bison crossing the road. Our van was right in the thick of it. Not so in the LBL. I think that the herd here numbers in the dozens, not thousands. We did see six or seven bison snoozing off in the distance. My puny iPhone telephoto lens couldn’t come close to making them anything more than black specks in the tall grass. We didn’t see any elk. The drive was pleasant, through a pleasant prairie, on a pleasant 82º afternoon, but it was a bust as far as wildlife goes.
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A pleasant prairie, but no elk and just a hand full of lazy bison. | |
There are lots of dry gulches in this area. | |
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It was already 3 pm when we got the ebikes out to tackle the Central Hardwoods Scenic Trail. It runs from lake to lake through the center of the LBL. It crosses the Tennesee River bridge on a separate bike lane, goes through our Fenton campground, zigs and zags on a bazillion switchbacks as it negotiates a bazillion hollows, and finally crosses the Cumberland River bridge on the eastern side of LBL. It is a hybrid “mountain-bike/touring-bike” trail. The trail is twisty, hilly, and narrow like a mountain bike trail, but the surface is a finely ground cinder giving it a smooth surface that accomodates skinnier tires.
It required a little different biking technique for us. We normally ride exclusively in the top gear. On smooth roads and paths, the motor gives us plenty of assist, even up steep hills, without any gear shifting. We can cruise at a steady 15 to 17 mph. 15 mph is way too fast for this trail. 5 mph is more like it, and the top gear didn’t work at that slow pace. A quick downshift of two gears (we have 24 to choose from) gave us the perfect gear to settle into.
The woods and hollows were gorgeous. The narrow trail and steep dropoffs were excillerating. My only complaint is that a few washouts were filled in with coarse gravel instead of the nice cinder surface. That being my only quibble, we were bummed that we got such a late start. We had to turn around after only going halfway as the sun was sagging. We didn’t want to ride the trail in the dark.
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Kentucky Lake (Tennessee River). | |
A plaque honoring the bridge designer. | |
Back at camp, we were still the only campers. The crickets drowned out the car noise which had slackened quite a bit as the night gently blanketed us. We battened down the hatches as our weather apps spewed out a series of notifications of bad things approaching. Radar images depicting a bright red strip predicted a big storm to hit around 1 am. | |
Glossary of terms used for newcomers: 1) V-Jer. The name of our camper. 2) Saturn. The name of our Van. 3) Duende. Our mischievous gremlin that breaks things. 4) Tata. The good gremlin that helps us fix Duende’s dirty work. 5) The Black Hole. This is what we call Walmart because every time we go in for just a couple of items, we come out spending way more than we figured. 6) QT. Quaint Town. 7) Little Buddy. This is what we call our Dyson cordless stick vacuum. | | | | |
