4/20/2023 0 Comments Big south fork![]() ![]() In the end, we were 30 minuets late and didnt arrive until 2:00 pm. On the way we did some last minute shopping at Walmart, made a quick stop at Cumberland Falls, grabbed some lunch in Whitley City and stopped to check out the gorge overlook above the Blue Heron Mine. Paul and I left Hamilton, Ohio at 7:00 am with plans to meet Eric and Michael at the Blue Heron Mine (the take-out) at 1:30 pm. Of six hopefuls, the final roster turned out to be Eric and Michael Ellestad (a father-son team), Paul Moretz and myself. And on Saturday October 21, 2006, with a blue cloudless sky and autumn leaves blazing full glory, I shoved off the bank for a 27 mile paddle adventure. I purchased a Trails Illustrated topo map, I downloaded 1 meter resolution aerial photos, and repeatedly flew through a Google Earth 3-D rendering of the gorge. ![]() I combed the Internet for trip reports and any other tidbits of relevant information. Planning for this trip had been underway in spurts since Labor Day. I have wanted to paddle the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River for a long time and on this past extended weekend it came to be. It is a rich habitat for wildlife including black bear, has a rich cultural history as home to early miners of the 19th century, and has many archeologically important sites related to the prehistoric occupants of the upper Cumberland plateau. Managed by the National Park Service, the Big South Fork National Recreation Area on the Kentucky-Tennessee state line is a 125,000 acre tract of pristine wilderness which protects the free-flowing Big South Fork of the Cumberland River and its tributaries. ![]()
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