Buck Creek in Kentucky

Trip Overview

Buck Creek, Pulaski County, KY

Our first trip down the lower part of Buck Creek. Two canoes, one 2-person poke boat, three single kayaks.

On the day of our trip, USGS Billows station said streamflow there was 1600 cfs and gauge height was around 6'. The water was high and moving pretty quick on Buck Creek.

Our put-in spot was on private property located on KY 1003 just south of Flat Rock Road. The water was pretty fast and rough on the west side of the creek where we put in and water was up in the branches of the trees. Two kayaks and a canoe flipped when they couldn't paddle out to the middle fast enough (probably more accurate to say they were novices who didn't realize how quickly they needed to get clear of the trees).

Fortunately all were OK and the trip was enjoyable and uneventful after that. Only intermittent attention and paddling required to stay out of the trees. Water was flat but swift in most areas but there were several places where it was choppy and a couple of slight ledges that may have risen almost to Class II.

We took out on private property just upstream of the KY 192 bridge. The trip was around 9-1/2 miles and took just over 3 hours including time stopped to dump water out etc. This creek is amazing, it's scenic and isolated. It was a great trip, especially for those of us who didn't get submerged first thing. WEAR A LIFE JACKET, NO EXCEPTIONS, if the water is anywhere near as high as reported here. This was a great afternoon of paddling in a beautiful spot!

I love to see well-documented trip reports with GPS coordinates of interesting features. However, the water-tight compartment of my new Old Town Saranac 146XT was in fact not water-tight, and my phone got soaked, rendering us ignorant of any location info. There were a couple of beautiful spring-fed coves on this trip and several nice terraces for camping, with permission of course. Hopefully we will have GPS on our next trip and can mark some points of interest and post.

Fees:

No

Directions:

There is a good public put-in spot is at the KY 1675 bridge near the Stab Vol Fire Dept, N37.1515 W84.4385, turn south on 1675 three miles east of jct KY80 & KY461.

Take-out spots at KY 1003 and KY 192 bridges are said to exist and appear workable but I have no direct knowledge of them.

Resources:

I had USGS topo map on my iPhone, which quit working.