Location: General Butler State Park, KY
All morning we just hung out at the campsite chillin'. Ned's reading a Trilogy on the Civil War. He's hoping to get to the second book, about the battle of Gettysburg, by the time we visit the Gettysburg Museum.
I'm enjoying the stories he's sharing with me. For those interested the Trilogy is: Gods & Generals, Killer Angels, & The Last Full Measure by Michael Shaara & Jeff Shaara.
Yesterday we biked a killer hill to the top of the State Park. It was a doozy. I wanted to bike into the nearby town of Carroltown, but didn't want to ride over that enormous hill again. We asked around and heard about a "shortcut" bike trail up the mountain. Well, turns out it wasn't so much a biking trail as it was a muddy gully - straight up. I pretty much walked my bike up (with Ned's help when we hit the slipping and sliding spots).
We finally made it to the top! Here's Ned at the overlook. Unfortunately, you can't see the valley behind him. Trust me, it was up!
The ride down was awesome. We rode a bit and finally made it to the little town of Carroltown. The town is situated between two rivers, the Kentucky and the Ohio. Barges pushing coal, from Western Kentucky, travel up the river constantly. We had fun riding along the river and watching the barges.
The other side of the river is Indiana.
The town itself has seen better days. It has a sweet little town square with a majestic courthouse in the middle, but almost all stores around the town square are vacant. The place seemed almost deserted. I'm hoping it was because it was Memorial Weekend, but we couldn't even find an ice cream shop!
The town has quite a history tho. This house was built in 1816 and is the oldest standing house in Carrolton. It's rumored to have been part of the Underground Railroad.
Not wanting to ride over that killer hill again, we decided to try and ride around it. There was a road posted staying it was closed, but open to local traffic. We decided to take it...Turns out it dead ends at one of the locks on the Kentucky River. Doh!
There was a local man working the lock. We watched a small speed boat go thru. When he was finished I asked him if we could go past this chained off area and hook back up to the State Park. (Okay, I begged him to not make me ride over that hill again! Pathetic,I know). This guy was such a sweetheart. He took pity on us, let us thru the chained off area and told us about a trail we could take.
You can see the lock behind him. The falls are behind the lock.
He also told us about some other interesting local things pertaining to the locks on the river and other stories about the area. Next to the locks are two identical abandoned houses that were built in 1835 for the original Lock Masters. He told us about the different floods and where the water marks were on the houses. The flood of 1937 was a doozy. These houses sit on a hill above the locks. The water mark was about 8 ft. up the chimney!
We set off on the trail he told us about. It was in the thick of the woods. The pros were it was much cooler in the woods and the smell of the honeysuckle all around was glorious. The cons - we really didn't know where we were going...
Great trail! Took us directly into the State Park without having to do the hill! Oh ye of little faith.
The bluegrass concert was moved...to the top of the hill. Guess who's not going. Looks like a quiet evening at home.
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