Day 10

July 15, 2021

Mile 161.2 – Mile 167

I woke up around 5:30am. It was foggy and cool, but beautiful morning. There was another homeless guy around. He went over to use the bathroom. The police station was right next to the park. The police chief came out of the station and started talking to the guy. He looked down where I was at. I could hear him say “Who’s stuff is down there? Is that yours?” He walked down to me. I got out of my hammock. I was thinking: oh geez. Here we go….

He asked kind of annoyed “Are you homeless?” I explained I was coming off the river and just needed a place to sleep last night. I would be on my way soon. His demeanor changed and he said “Oh. Ok, you’re good. You can use the bathrooms. They’re right there.” He warned me about the homeless and just to be careful as I was going down the river. There are lots of people who would be willing to steal stuff. He told me there was a flood a few months ago and how there was a dead cow up in one of the trees nearby. I might still be up there.

At 10:30 I walked across the bridge to get some ice and drinks at the gas station. Subway was there so I decided to treat myself to an Italian sub. The gas station was out of ice so fortunately the liquor store across the street had some. I walked back to park. When I got over there, there was a woman and her kids. I walked around the outside and went down the bank to my board. I was going to come back up, eat my sandwich under the pavilion and leave right after. When I got back up the bank, she was gone. As I sat down to eat, the same police officer I talked to earlier said that dispatch got a complaints about me. Apparently I look like a homeless person. I told him I was just going to eat and be one my way. He said definitely finish my food and we talked a little bit. He wished me luck before he left.

I finished my sub and was on the water by 11:30. It was only 6.5 miles to the first lock and Heidelberg Park, where I would be camping. The paddle felt long and slow. I had some head wind. I was also a bit dehydrated from the sub I ate. I found out that morning a buddy, Joel Gupton, had passed away the night before. We’d served together in the same unit. We got to the unit together at the same time, in mid 2005, and we came up together through the training pipeline. Like everyone else that knew him, we were all really shocked by this. I thought about him while I was paddling that day and it was really bumming me out.

When I got close to the lock, I could hear the water rushing off the dam. I pulled up to lock wall and was able to easily take my stuff off my board, and place it on the concrete. I had a tough time hauling up my pelican case up. It took a lot of work, but I was able to heave it up using the 550 cord. It’s not the best but it worked. I then used it to pull up my board. I began ferrying my stuff to the end of the lock. The locks are at least 500ft long. At the other end, it’s about a 15-20ft drop to the bottom. When I got done getting everything down, it was around 3:30. I was debating on whether or not to stay there as I planned or push the 9 miles to the next lock. If I pushed to the next lock that would be 9 less miles I would have to paddle tomorrow. If I stayed at the park, I would have the shelter of the pavilion since the forecast called for a chance of thunderstorms that night. Part of me was pushing me to go but something was holding me back from going. I decided to stick around. I hope I will not regret this decision.

While I was killing time, I thought about what if I tied down all my stuff to the board and let the board ride down the falls of the dam. I could have control over the board with the 550 cord. I tried with just the board and it worked well. However, I got a little concerned something would go wrong and it would end up being disastrous, so I decided to stay safe and I would stick with portaging.

After I tried that and brought my stuff down to the water on the far side of the lock, I brought whatever I needed for the night up to the park. It was a pretty nice, spacious park with a really large pavilion. There were also some bathrooms. The county maintaince guys show up to mow the grass (I later found out they were also law enforcement). I should have talked to them before they left just to meet people and get some possible valuable info. As they were leaving, a guy in a red SUV showed up. Looks like he was going fishing on the lock. I was feeling a little bored and wanted someone to talk to so I went down there to talk to him. I came up on him and said how’s it going? He was a little startled at first because I’m sure he wasn’t expecting anyone to come up on him, but he relaxed and I asked if he minded that I join him there. He said sure. He offered me one of his poles since he had four of them.

His name was James. He was retired. He worked as a corrections officer for over 27 years. He lived not too far away, just near Beattyville. I hung out and talked to him for over 3 hours. He talked about working in the prison, hunting and fishing. We got into a little bit of politics and history. He showed me pictures of Beattyville when it flooded. I eventually caught a small catfish. I threw it back. James doesn’t eat the fish. He just throws them back. He’ll only take them if one of his family members wants one. He said he comes down to the lock all the time and just sit there and fish. He especially spent a lot of time there during the peak of covid last year. He enjoys just fishing everyday he can and not having to do anything after working for so many years.

As it got dark, James lit up his lantern. He was going to hang out as long as he could. However, just as he did drops of rain started to come down. It started small and then just opened up to a downpour. I had to run my camera and my only pair of pants back up to the pavilion so they wouldn’t get wet. I changed into my shorts and ran back down to help James gather his stuff. He asked me a couple of times if I was good on food and water, and if I need anything else. I told him I was good and thanked him. We said goodbye and he drove off.

It stormed for a few hours. There were lightning strikes close by. I felt pretty validated with my instinct to stay put for the evening. As much as it would have been a good idea to lessen the burden for tomorrow, I had a nice safe, dry place for the night at least.

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