The thought of paddling our way from one end of O’Shaughnessy Reservoir to the other was less than appealing. Without a current to help you along, paddling a lake takes more effort. The presence of power boats and water skiers means you have to hug the shoreline. The sheer size of the body of water means you either choose to limit your exploration to one shore or you circle the lake in the blazing sun. All of this is my way of explaining why I chose to explore O’Shaughnessy mainly by car – with one kayaking excursion. In spite of not being on the water for the entire length of O’Shaughnessy, I found this part of the Scioto River surprisingly interesting.

It was sunny and cool on June 15 when George, David and I headed to a put in point just south of the town of Prospect. We sited a Red Headed Woodpecker on the road that parallels the Scioto. River mile 170.93 is just below an old dam. A pipe that runs under the road carries run off from farm fields into the river. The high levels of algae growth indicate that nutrients, like fertilizer, are in the water that the pipe carries.

My first canoe trip on the Scioto was on May 11. The weather was perfect – sunny, cool, and with only a light breeze. There are three people and two canoes in our party. George Anderson, local photographer, is in the solo canoe he built himself with a case of photography equipment, and David Rutter, MORPC’s Water Quality Project Manager, and I are in the second canoe which we rented from Columbus Outdoor Pursuits.

Getting to this moment involved a great deal of planning and management of logistics. Here is how it went:

Driving east out of Kenton on State Route 309, I find myself almost immediately back in farm country. County Road 144 veers off to the southeast and pretty much follows the course of the Scioto River. One unique aspect of the river at this part of its course is that it flows so close to the sub-continental divide – a ridge that divides the waters that flow south into the Ohio River from those that flow north into Lake Erie. This results in no permanent tributaries entering the Scioto from the north, but several adding their waters from the south. Wolf Creek, Jim Creek, Panther Creek and Wild Cat Run all flow north into to the Scioto over the course of the next several miles.

My intention is to travel the river in sections, documenting and interpreting what I see and experience through a blog hosted by COSI’s website, between April and August 2012.