Paddling the Patoka during a Pandemic

So what do you do during a pandemic? Go Canoeing!

Maybe not an answer that you would come up with, but that is exactly what we did. So, where do you go? Especially when one of the canoes is a handmade wooden one. Rivers in Kentucky get very low in the winter and are full of rocks, not so great for a wooden canoe. So Lake Patoka became our destination. It is known for fishing and speedboating.

We spent one beautiful sunny Friday in November out on this lake. It is 45 minutes from Louisville, so an easy drive. Take I-64 west and get off at the exit heading for French Lick. Print off a map of Lake Patoka before you leave and locate Osbourn Ramp on it. (The maps I found did not have the ramps delineated on the map; roads just ended in the lake!) After you cross the bridge over a section of Lake Patoka on SR 145, turn right off of SR 145 towards French Lick Cabins. Osbourn Ramp is at the end of the road. Each Patoka Lake entrance ramp has concrete ramps, ample parking with public restroom facilities. We did not find water at our entrance site, however. We chose Osbourn ramp because it leads to the more narrow channels (fingers) of the very large lake, the second largest reservoir in Indiana. To paddle to these narrower channels, canoe to the left (and not the right) after disembarking from the ramp. We were fearful of being on an open lake and having to paddle against the wind to get anywhere, but this part of the lake was narrow with many fingers. We set off, 3 canoes with 6 people paddling, and quickly began to enjoy being out on water in a canoe again, oh, and one dog. The water was calm, the sun was warm, there were very few boats in sight and the fall colors were still present with oranges and yellows. Can you think of a better way to spend a sunny November day?

Look at that Amazing Day on the Lake!

As we paddled we saw on the left, off of one of the fingers, what looked like a cave in the cove of the lake. We paddled closer to inspect and found a large overhang on this cove, with some water dripping off of it into the lake. We explored this interesting site and then continued on our way.

Large Overhang at the End of a Finger of Lake Patoka

Canoe in and Canoe out of this Cove

We got a late morning start on our trip and so we began looking for a piece of flat lakeside to stop and eat our lunch, masked up and social distancing, of course. We saw a site that looked fairly flat and large enough to accommodate us; so we headed there. The closer we got the steeper the bank looked. Nothing else looked better so we decided to go for it. After setting up our portable table and finding rocks to help level out our chairs, we enjoyed our time with our lunch catching up with friends. After lunch, we paddled around the nearby bend in the lake and found a very nice flat area that would have been perfect to stop on for lunch. Oh well.

The Beautiful Shore

We Love the Layers in the Rocks.

Lake Patoka became a reservoir in the 1970's. So we were canoeing through submerged forests. The tops of the trees were peaking out above the water, or hiding below the surface. The paddler in the bow had to be on the look out for these hidden trees. The dead trees that have been below the surface of the water for almost 50 years are still strong! They are strong enough to grab a canoe and not let go! Our friends canoed on top of just one little point of a tree, and couldn't get off! It seems silly to think that these tree tops could have that much power! At the same time, these submerged forests limit the speedboats in the area, and make it a perfect place to canoe.

The Submerged Forest Photo by KT Ockels

We realized that we needed to pay attention to where we were going so we could find our way back to our vehicles. The lake has many side fingers that, we found out, are actually just a continuation of the lake into other valleys. If you don't pay attention you could find yourself spending a lot of time going into the wrong sections of the lake. Fortunately, we kept track and found that we were good navigators!

Pandemic fatigue? Get out into that sun, on a quiet lake and canoe! Use your navigational skills, paddle and enjoy! You can even socially distance with friends. Maybe even on Lake Patoka, an easy float, with pretty scenery making a pleasant outing.

Oh, the Joys! Canoeing with Grandkids!

Oh, to share our love of canoeing with the grandkids. To introduce them to canoeing, we canoed only about a mile on the Green River in Kentucky. This was intended to give them a taste of being on a river, so that they would want to do more! The youngest had never been in a boat and was terrified that he would tip when we put him in the middle of the canoe. It took five minutes of talking to him calmly, and then he was ready. The oldest was also hesitant but didn't express it; we could just tell by the tenseness of his body and his reluctance to pick up the paddle. But these photos show you the results.