Kate and I went on another short trip. I took the day off Friday night so I could get some sleep before driving 3 hours into KY toward Grayson Lake. I learned of the lake through a Yahoo Group called Cincypaddlers. As we arrived it was a beautiful day about 75 degrees and sunny. We took all back roads to get there along the Ohio River, so it was very scenic going through the small towns. We arrived at the lake and decided to go get a campsite to make sure we had a place to stay when done kayaking. We picked a decent spot, and set up the tent, then headed toward the put in. We started in about 1:30 in the afternoon. The lake does not seem like any lake you would know. It is at most a couple hundred yards wide, making it seem much more like a river. The lake has many branches off it though, which is what we took. The sides of the "lake" are limestone/sandstone faced walls, where most of the time you can kayak under an overhanging wall. There were only a couple other motorboats, which had to go very slowly due to the tight bends in the lake and how narrow it was (always points jutting out into the water). We saw no other kayaks.
We got to our first falls, which they call Hidden Falls (though I didnt find it very hidden). It was a rather short, wide falls with lots of debris behind it. I maneuvered my 14.5' kayak in behind, got some pics, then went straight thru getting drenched. Kate did the same in her borrowed Otter Kayak 9.5'. After getting a thourough washing, we continued on, drying in the sunshine.
After another short jaunt further up lake, we came to the highlight. A 75 ft waterfall draining into the lake. Again, I'm able to maneuver around behind it... and play around with pics before going through it. We played around here for quite a while. After going through a couple times (filling my boat with water), and Kate joining in on the fun, we started back.
We had heard a waterfall out of sight in a little cove on the way up and decided to try to see it while we were on our return trip. We pulled our kayaks to the side and climbed out. After a 10-15 minute walking (about 200 yards) through dense forest with no trail, we found this falls (which was unnamed, but I though should be called "Hidden Falls" instead of the other one). It was about a 30 ft. falls, but not as much water flow as the previous two. We headed back, got in the kayaks and soaked up some more sun on the way back. Wonderful weather. My only complaint about the lake is that it has no sandbars or spots suitable to unload and hang out. The sides of the lake are thick brush or rock walls.
We loaded the kayaks, and headed back to camp where we got a roaring fire going. We cooked brats/mets over the fire and sat back and chilled till about midnight, going to bed. The next morning we woke up to rain. We went ahead and started our journey home. Great weekend trip.
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