You could find The Bardstown Boaters camp at the trailhead for the Pine Mountain Trail.

On Saturday, The Bardstown Boaters paddled the Upper Section of the Russell Fork then hiked into The Gorge Section to watch competitors in The Lord of The Fork, a whitewater race through what is known as the Beast of the East.

On Sunday, many in the club paddled the Upper Section of the Russell Fork River once again.

The Russell Fork runs every weekend in October with scheduled releases on Saturday and Sunday. The scenery is always spectacular this time of year. When the Fall comes it continues to invoke memories of the Russell Fork into the minds of Bardstown Boaters.

For some first-hand recounts, a run down of the winners, and more images from the weekend visit the forum.

Teams consisting of 12 runners will run along the state’s famed Bourbon Trail on Oct. 9-10. The race will start near Bardstown and finish in Lexington, but the route the runners will take covers nearly 200 miles.

“Certainly, running along the trail in horse country is beautiful. It’s a great way to showcase our finest products,” said Mary Quinn Ramer, vice president of tourism marketing for the Lexington Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The idea for the race came from Mike Kuntz, a former track and field coach at the University of Louisville and Bellarmine University.

He participated in Oregon’s annual Hood to Coast Relay in 2001 with former U of L runners.

“This is the grandmother of them all,” he said of the Oregon race.

“I thought we could do an event in Kentucky that could be even better,” he said, adding that Kentucky has more to market, and the Bourbon Trail has more beautiful scenery than the Oregon race route.

“I felt like we could have a better runner’s experience in Kentucky. … Oregon was beautiful, but they really didn’t showcase the state,” he said.

Kuntz talked with people in the bourbon industry about his idea for a race in Kentucky nearly a year ago.

“It’s my idea that’s been slightly tweaked,” he said of the Kentucky race.

Lexington has been designated as the host city for the overnight relay race.

“We want to have a huge post-race event here in Lexington,” Ramer said.

She said the race could have an $800,000 to $1 million economic impact on the Lexington area. People who participate in such events often stay overnight in the cities where the races end, she said.

“Ultimately our goal is to have an event that will bring people from every corner of the United States,” she said.

Next year’s race will be held the same weekend that Keeneland Race Course’s fall meet starts, so participants can enjoy the city after the run, then head to the track, she said.

Up to 4,000 participants and volunteers are expected the first year for The Bourbon Chase, which is designed to celebrate Kentucky’s bourbon production history, according to planners of the event. The Kentucky Bourbon Trail links distilleries in the state, where visitors can see how bourbon is made.

Each runner will run three three- to eight-mile legs. Support vans will drop off and pick up runners at designated exchange points along the route.

“This is a great opportunity to introduce our signature industry to thousands of adventurous travelers,” said Eric Gregory, president of the Kentucky Distillers’ Association.

Details for the event are still being worked out, including what prizes the winners will receive.

“I think there’s nothing to win on a Bourbon chase really than bourbon,” Kuntz said.

For more info visit www.bourbonchase.com

The Viking Canoe Club and The Nachbar host many LVM Premieres and other boater friendly activities. Keep checking in with the Vikings and visit the Nachbar at 969 Charles Street on the corner of Charles and Krieger in Germantown where there is always a good time to be had.

On October 2, 1968, President Johnson signed the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.

Paddlers were and continue to be among the most passionate advocates for protecting our nation’s free-flowing rivers. Upon witnessing the loss of hundreds of miles of great rivers to water development projects and hydropower, paddlers were among the first activists who advocated for a Wild and Scenic Rivers system to protect our nation’s last free-flowing rivers.

In Kentucky there is only one river in the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, Red River.

(154) (A) RED RIVER, KENTUCKY. — The 19.4-mile segment of the Red River extending from the Highway 746 Bridge to the School House Branch, to be administered by the Secretary of Agriculture in the following classes: (i) the 9.1-mile segment known as the “Upper Gorge” from the Highway 746 Bridge to Swift Camp Creek, as a wild river (this segment is identified as having the same boundary as the Kentucky Wild River), (ii) the 10.3-mile segment known as the “Lower Gorge” from Swift Camp Creek to the School House Branch, as a recreational river.

By DAN WHITE

“THIS is all virgin trail,” said Shad Baker, a connoisseur of hiking in the steeply slanted backwoods of eastern Kentucky, as he dropped me off at the start of my adventure there on the new Pine Mountain Trail. “This is probably the most remote place you can get that exists out here. You are five miles even from the nearest house.”

We said goodbye. He drove off. And then I slipped into woods so thick they looked like an American jungle.

Read More in the New York Times

You just can’t beat old Neil Young tunes. May this one be on you’re radio the next time your heading to the put-in.

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

Visit the great Russell Fork Info website for a run down on all of these rapids.

Upper Section
Splashdam
Railroad
Twenty Stitches
Johnny Rock

Lower Section
MeatGrinder
Pinball

As it turned out the second annual event turned out to be a great success with more people taking part as individuals or as part of a team. We hope that the perseverance shown by White, Bardstown Boaters, Horizon Hoppers and the other sponsors will pay off next year in landing a “naming sponsor” for the event.

In the meantime, the community should be thankful that we have volunteers who have the fortitude to stay with a project even in the face of adversity and give it a chance to succeed. If we are going to live up to the outdoor adventure potential that National Geographic Magazine sees here it will take some more of the vision shown by the “Challenge” organizers.

Their efforts should be applauded and others should follow their example to make Nelson County the place it can be.