ALTON BEACH

July 10, 2010---A last look at the Owensboro dock as we prepared to move up river.

Passed by the riverfront construction area. Expected to become a nice area in the future. However there may not be any accommodations for boaters to tie up and walk to see the improvements.

Owensboro Grain appears to be quite a large operation.

William Natcher Bridge at mile 746 is hiway 231 just upriver from Rockport Indiana. This cable stayed design has large rigid cables running from the road surface to the support towers.

Nuclear power plant past the bridge.

Town called Tell City lies along the bank on the Indiana side of the Ohio River. There are many small towns in Kentucky and Indiana along the way that only have small docks for local use.


Notice the large tree trunks on this bridge piling.

Approaching the Cannelton Lock and dam at mile 720.7. In and out with no wating, a 26 foot lift. Construction of this lock and dam was started in 1963. It replaced three dams that had out-moded locks. The lake created by this dam extends 114 miles to Louisville, KY.

At Alton Indiana we looked for a place to spend the night. Spotted a number of boats about one half mile upriver against the shore. Decided to do a "soft landing" at that site. Drove the bow on the sand and tossed a line to one of the guys on the beach. He wrapped it around a tree for us. We lowered the dinghy (Little Dreamer) and hauled an anchor about 50' up river and used that to secure the stern. Met a lot of folks on the beach. A very friendly bunch of "hoosiers". Of course they said we had come to the right place instead of being in Kentucky! Locals call this Alton Beach located at mile 678. They said it is very busy here during the summer where folks meet to party.

Having traveled up the Ohio 78.5 miles in 9 hours we were glad to be tied to shore for the night. A few tugs passed in the night that rocked the boat. However the main channel here is on the Kentucky side of the river so the wake was not bad by the time it reached our location.