Gunpowder Creek, Kentucky, US
|
|
Camp Ernst Road to Dale Williamson Rd. (7.5 miles)
| Usual Difficulty |
II+ (for normal flows) |
| Length |
7.5 Miles |
| Avg. Gradient |
25 fpm |
| Max Gradient |
35 fpm |
Gauge Information
River Description
Gunpowder Creek is located in Boone County and flows out of Florence, KY (and the Northern
Kentucky/Greater Cincinnati Airport) west through a Boy Scout camp (Camp Ernst), and on to the
Ohio River.
This creek is a nice little class II run with some easy surf and play spots. It averages about
40-50 feet wide, and the banks are tree-lined with lots of big sycamore trees. It is very pretty,
and very little sign of civilization can be seen anywhere along the run. Camp Ernst on river
right will probably be the only buildings you see. But there are some things to consider before
running this creek.
Even though this is only a class II run, good boat control is essential, due to the abundance of
strainers and islands along the way. Also, for the first 3 miles, the run is class II-II+, with
several decent little surfing opportunities. Then the next 4 miles really calm down to long
pools, class I shoals, and the occasional small class II with small front surfing waves. But,
islands everywhere make those miles dangerous. You can't just float this creek -- you have to be
attentive!
This is a very polluted creek. Recently TV reporters did a story about a young woman from the
Sierra Club who was doing a study on the creek. She had discovered that the creek was dead. The
Glycol used for de-icing planes has killed off most signs of life in this creek. Also, the put-in
is at the sewage treatment station. Although that (and the glycol) surely have destroyed this
creek, when we ran it, no one in our group smelled any sewage. (Does glycol smell? Surely it all
ran off in the spring.)
StreamTeam Status: Not Verified
Last Updated: 2004-06-12 22:01:33
Editors
Probably too low for any meaningful whitewater experience. 
No rapids entered. If you know names, and locations of the rapids please contact and advise the StreamTeam member for this run. 
User Comments
caught the biggest crawdads I,ve seen out of it. I practice rolls in here all the time and play on
the little wave about 100 yards from my house and have not had any ill effects from being in the
water. My mother in law has talked to a guy at KY division of water about this creek he said the
poop and jet fuel problem had been addressed. She had concerns about the kids playing in it.
moving water most of the way. It could be paddled up to 1500+cfs no problem. The largest waves were
2ft high and no danger but you will need some boat control. There were some large strainers about
1.5 miles into the run. There were previous post about poor water quality but that was not the
case. The creek was very muddy from all the runoff but clean and not smelly at all. Time 2009-08-05
03:56:00 GMT
mile 2.5 one will encounter a delightful class -III wave/hole that offers great surfing all the way
down to 200 cfs. Ran it once at 175 and dropping and still pulled some sweet spins and whatnot. Oh
yeah, keep those eyes and mouth shut,unless u like the taste of poop/jet fuel(thanks to the
wonderful greater cinn. airport) Edit