Jul 14

Left Pittsburgh this morning. Didn't get to see much of the town - river access to all these towns, including Pittsburgh is very limited. So I paddled down the Ohio at last. I have a very good guide book to the Ohio so it may be easier to find places to camp and places to eat.

Went through the first Ohio River lock, the Emsworth lock & dam. On these locks, a lockman comes out, throws down a hook, I attach my line to the hook, he pulls my line up and secures it to a cleat. As the water goes down, I pay out my line. Today it was a young guy and he asked me where I was headed. I told him Cincinnati and he said, "You're headed in the right direction." A little lock humor, I guess.

Rained pretty hard today, off and on, mostly on. All my stuff gets wet, but most of it is in dry bags so not really a problem. Except for me - I don't have a dry bag to get into. But the sun's out right now.

I am in a campground at the Groveton marina, at the tip of Neville Island, about ten miles downriver from Pittsburg.. Nice place, but no restaurants or grocery stores nearby, so it looks like chili and beans tonight. MMMM-mmm.