Canoeing on the Green River: Dennison Ferry to Green River Ferry

During our camping trip to Mammoth Cave last weekend, we took two canoe rides on the Green River... on the same route! The first trip was just us and Neal's parents, and the second day the four of us took our niece and two nephews. We had a blast! We started at Dennison Ferry and rode down to the Green River Ferry, which is about 7.5 miles (see a map of the river).

The put in at Dennison Ferry was very accessible. The stairs had a canoe ramp in the center that made it easy to slide the canoe down into the river. Down two flights of these stairs, and we were in the water. There wasn't much loading area at the bottom of the stairs - everyone had to get on the boat from the bottom step.

The river was a little high because of the recent rain, but it was a very pleasant ride. There weren't many places along the banks of the river to pull off and get out of the canoes, but on this short ride, that wasn't too much of an issue. The mile markers along the river allowed us to keep track of how far we went. The kids really enjoyed being on the lookout for these and trying to be the first to spot our next mile marker! We saw a fair amount of wildlife - a snake, blue herons, ducks, and turtles. There wasn't much traffic on the river either day. The first day, we saw four kayakers, but the second day, we didn't see any others on the river!

It was a very pretty ride. Neal and I especially enjoyed the areas where the river split and one side of the split was mostly covered by trees, like in this picture. These areas were beautiful and felt very secluded. The spot pictured here is toward the end of the ride - stay right on the split!

At the end of the ride, we paddled our canoes right up onto the ramp at the Green River Ferry (after catching the ferry attendant's attention, of course!). We carried our canoes up the hill into the parking lot, where one of our cars was waiting! While my mother-in-law and I unloaded our canoes, Neal and his dad drove back to Dennison Ferry to pick up the other car (about a 15-minute trip each way). By the time we had the canoes ready to load again, they were back with the cars. This was a nice, short trip (slightly less than 3 hours, with the current flowing pretty well). A great activity for the family during our weekend camping trip!

What's for supper? Foil dinners of course!

Hi all, in the weeks leading up to our trip, we had one conversation more than any other - What are we going to eat? We really only needed to worry about Saturday night. When you have one group on Diet A, one group on Diet B, then us on Diet C (who am I kidding, no diets here!), it can be a bit of a challenge. Diets really go out the window while camping, however you don't want to go crazy!

We decided on hobo dinners, or in a policitally correct world, foil dinners - Boise! Am I glad we did! My parents grew up on these during boy scout and girl scout camping trips. I've had similar meals on my own grill, but these are 10x better! We fired up the fire pits about 4:00 so they'd have plenty of hot coals by dinner time. About 45 minutes before we were ready to eat, we started preparing our feast.

Simply put, a foil dinner is a dinner wrapped in foil (duh!). You roll out some foil, spray some Pam cooking spray - VERY IMPORTANT!! -, slop some meat/veggies on it, roll it up, then place it directly on some coals in the fire. What do you put in these packages? Anything you want! We had chopped steak, shredded carrots, shredded potatoes, squash/zucchini, sweet potatoes, and onions. We pre-cut everything (except for the potatoes) for easy preparation. Throw some some seasoning salt and worcestershire sauce and you've got something special.

The packets were on the fire for about 25 minutes, flipped once somewhere in the middle. Some of our "leftover" packages had to be left on for a bit longer. It can be tricky getting them out of the fire - long tongs are recommended. Mine was a bit charred on one side and I wouldn't have it any other way!

This meal is enjoyable to both make and eat. It's great for the family...the kids had a great time keeping track of everone's packages in the fire (we had 15....hard to keep track of all of 'em!). My mom also had some biscuits out of a cannister (Pillsbury), put them on a foil-wrapped branch (again, sprayed with Pam), and threw them over the fire as well.

Yummy!

Mammoth Cave Trip Report - Maple Springs Campground

This weekend, we traveled up to Kentucky to visit Mammoth Cave with Neal's family. His parents, sister, brother-in-law, and our niece and nephews joined us for a wonderful weekend of fall camping. It was pretty cool in the evenings, but the campfires... oh, the campfires.

We stayed at the Maple Springs Group Campground, which was perfect for our group. We had a huge lot of land, plenty of room for our three tents to be spread out - we could have easily fit many more tents with room to spare. My sister-in-law and her husband brought their horses and enjoyed some of the trails nearby. The hitching posts at our campsite were really convenient for them. Our site included two fire pits and five picnic tables.

The benefit to being at this campground over the main campground: (1) the space (we had a lot of land for our tents and five picnic tables at our site); (2) the seclusion (there was only one other group at the campground while we were there); and (3) the proximity to hiking and horse trails. The downsides to this campground: (1) the distance from conveniences (the shower house, the store, etc.); (2) the "bathroom" (really just a glorified hole in the ground, but it was sufficient!); (3) security (potentially, although we didn't have any problems); and (4) getting there (with a car, you'll cross the Green River on the ferry, but you can't take trailers across the ferry, and the back roads make for a more difficult trip).

The campground was very wooded and pretty. Our site had plenty of parking for our cars. Note: This campground requires reservations, which must be made 48 hours in advance (either through the website or the 800 number). The campground may also require horses - we read that somewhere, but we didn't notice that anyone ever checked up on whether we had horses.

Welcome to our blog

Four years ago for Christmas, we asked for and received every camping item under the moon. The next spring, we eagerly put up the tent in the backyard, sealed seams, waterproofed, and prepared to begin our camping journey. When we pulled out all our supplies a few weeks ago, three years worth of dust had collected on our tent, our lantern, and our plans.

What took us so long to put all these items to use and to take our first trip? Mostly, I think it was fear. Fear that we didn't know what we were doing. Fear that we were forgetting important things. Fear that we wouldn't enjoy it as much as we thought.

We've finally decided to put all that fear aside and embark upon a new journey, a journey of canamping. What is canamping? Well, a few weeks ago, we added a canoe, life jackets, and oars to our gear. Now, not only are we camping, but we're also canoeing. And so, we are canamping.

We're using this blog to share our journey. We'll post pictures and videos from our trips, reviews of places and equipment, tips for other canampers, camping recipes, and anything else that comes to us! Come along and go canamping with us!