Land Between the Lakes

Our next destination was Land Between the Lakes, Sep 2014, but to get there you have to cross the Ohio River.  Instead of going up to I-24, we decided to cross at Brookport on U.S. Hwy 45. Just as we started up the hill, we saw a sign stating no vehicles over 8 feet wide.  As you can see, there is no where to turn around or even stop, so we had no choice but to continue on.
 

Well, they did mean, no vehicles wider than 8 feet.  To avoid being hit or hitting someone else, we had to hug the right side of the bridge and the girders there took out the side mirror.  We went back later with the jeep to see if we could find it, but I believe it ended up in the bottom of the Ohio River.  Bad, bad signage by the state of  Illinois.  Maybe the state is getting kickbacks from the manufacturers of side mirrors.

But we got a great spot in the overflow area at the COE park on Lake Barkley/Cumberland River, just outside of  Land Between the Lakes Recreation Area.

I had never tried to take Fancy kayaking before since I usually kayak fast flowing rivers.  But she seemed to enjoy it and wasn't nervous at all.  

It was a great spot to enjoy the evenings.

One evening we kayaked around to the canal so we could catch the sunset.

While exploring we spotted this sign and thought we might find some old ruins.

Not to be.  This was all we found.  The area now seems to be a residential neighborhood.

We barely missed hitting this guy on the road.

I'm glad we missed him because it looks like he was a rat snake and they are good.

It's the end of September, first of October and the trees are starting to turn.

They have a nature center and a pair of Red Foxes with a young, 5 month old pup.

One day we took our bikes down to Golden Pond Visitor Center.  The Central Hardwoods Trail spans the width of LBL, from Kentucky Lake to Lake Barkley, but we started at the visitor center (about halfway) and headed west towards Kentucky Lake.  It was supposed to be an easy bike trail with rolling hills. Now, I'm not a mountain biker.  I like relatively flat, rail to trails or nice bike trails meandering along through a park or along a lake.  Well, for me, this was the bike trail from hell.  Five miles of trails with elevations going up and down, as noted on the picture above.  For most bikers, they are probably laughing, and that's ok.  I'm just not used to anything like this.  But I did it, and I survived.  I just had to push my bike up that long hill on the way back.