Guyandotte current

I stopped at the boat ramp at the mouth of the Guyandotte River today, and I was surprised by the current. It's been a while since I had noticed the Guyandotte flowing that swift. Where it bumped up against the Ohio River, there was a wall of swirling water.

That strong current probably was a result of the storms of a couple of days ago. The runoff up in the mountains is probably just now getting to the Ohio. Along with the current came a torrent of trash, too. Plastic, mainly. A long string of trash flowed a few feet off the Ohio shoreline below the mouth of the Guyandotte.

The Ohio was a pinkish brown today, probably from the mud in the storm runoff. Just like last year, we went into June with a brown river instead of a blue one. If the Guyandotte was bringing a heavy mud load to the Ohio, the Kanawha probably is, too, so it may be a few days before we get our summer river.

Meeting at Huntington

Around noon today, the mv. Wally Roller of American Commercial Barge Lines and the Harllee Branch Jr. of Ingram Marine met as they approached the Robert C. Byrd Bridge between downtown Huntington WV and Chesapeake OH. The Wally Roller was upbound and passed under the bridge first.

The two boats passed port-to-port at Harris Riverfront Park.

After they passed, the Harllee Branch Jr. passed under the bridge and headed on down the river.

The river was running a caramel brown because of all the rain we had late last week. More on that later.

If the river had been a spring blue or a summer algae green ... oh, if only.

Riverfronts

The Nashville Tenneseean looks at some river towns that have embraced and re-developed their riverfronts. Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Louisville are mentioned.