On just one Monday of each month, the Monday Club gathers to explore some part of Kentucky or Indiana, usually within a two-hour drive from Louisville. If you are ever looking to hike, bike or paddle some of the surrounding region, check here for monthly (sometimes) updates.

2023

January - This was a three-part outing to Southern Indiana, upstream along the Ohio River about an hour from Louisville. First we stopped in at Hanover College, then had lunch with an old friend and finished with a tour of the historic rivertown, Madison, Indiana.

Map and pictures.

2022

December - This is one of the very best places to visit in Kentucky (map and pics). Put it near the top of your list. Pleasant Hill is a beautifully restored 1805 Shaker village on 3,000 acres in the Kentucky Bluegrass about 75 miles southeast from Louisville adjacent to the Kentucky River. The site contains lodging in historic buildings including an inn and several cottages all furnished with traditional Shaker furniture. The restaurant and gift shops are open year around. There are also various tours of the historic buildings and grounds. In addition, there are facilities for lodging horses and extensive riding trails. This hike was planned to return to the Inn for the traditional Holiday Lunch.

November - We returned to a place first introduced to me by my 7th grade Sunday school teacher, Whit Craik. He piled a bunch of his students into his 1968 Plymouth Barracuda “fastback” and took us to the hills of Indian Fort, part of 9,000 acres owned and managed by Berea College. He showed us a spring and drinking bowl carved out of a limestone ledge either by the Hopewell indigenous maybe 2,000 years ago or more recently by the Cherokee or Shawnee native to the region. It’s a hike filled with rewarding views (map & pics). From West Pinnacle you look back over the rolling fields of the Bluegrass and from East Pinnacle the view is into the beginnings of Appalachia. Berea College is tuition free and was founded in in 1855 as the first interracial and coeducational college in the South. After the hike we stopped in Berea for refreshments at the Frost Cafe adjacent to the historic Boone Tavern. Dinner was in Midway, a small restaurant and shop-filled Kentucky village with a railroad running down the middle of Main Street.

September - Eastern Kentucky, headwaters of Grayson Lake (Little Sandy River) 35 miles east of Morehead, KY. 15-mile bike ride followed by a 5-mile paddle and a stop for dinner in Morehead.Photos.Trail map (red canoe, blue bike). While paddling along in the river we could hear a loadspeaker shouting muffled orders. Took a minute to figure out where that was coming from… Little Sandy Correctional Complex just a few hundred yards north of the river but separated by 100’ bluffs. Nice local brewing company in Morehead. Except for Halls (famous) Beer Cheese, menu was pizza place across the street.

July - Biking Cloverport to Fordsville. 50 mile round trip on gravel and pavement. Route Map. Photos. A 1.5 hour drive west from Louisville on US 60. Stopped at Christi's Cafe for breakfast, drove past Fort Knox, home to US Bullion Depository. Lunch at the Dinner Diner in Fordsville, KY and dinner at Bert's in Cloverport, KY. Passed the Meade County Fair in Brandenburg, KY on the way home.

June - Hike with bike, paddle. The Upper Red River. Photos. Map link. Link to river water level 200 CFS (cubic feet per second) to 500 CFS recommended for paddling. We ignored this. We left the canoe at the upstream put in, drove to the downstream take out, left the car, biked up a dirt hiking trail to gravel and paved roads back to put in. Got in canoe and paddled a little, dragged a lot and in 2 hours had only covered about a mile and a half. It would have taken us until 2:00 a.m. to finish if we didn’t break our ankles pulling over slippery rocks. There was only maybe 10 CFS of flow. Pulled canoe out at a bridge, walked back to bikes, rode back to car 20 miles, dinner at Miguel’s, drove back to bridge to pick up canoe. The Apollo 13 of the Monday Club. Everybody got home alive.

May - Second attempt at fishing white bass run on Salt River above Taylorsville Lake. Less successful than April attempt (hard to imagine). The Monday Club is also known as The Worst Fishing Club in North America for a reason. Side trip to Goodwood Brewing in Frankfort, Kentucky afterwards for obvious reasons. Photos.

April - Salt River fishing the White Bass run. Legendary run of White Bass from the cool depths of Taylorsville Lake up to spawn in the Salt River headwater. Breakfast at Lynda’s Grill in Taylorsville. Aprés dining at the nearby home of friends met years before at the Bourbon & Beyond Music Festival & Rain Storm. Photos.

March - Biking/Fishing in the Peabody Wildlife Management Area. Photos. Map link. This area was once the property of Peabody Coal, made famous by John Prine's song "Paradise" where "the coal company came with the world's largest shovel..." Restored now and the mining roads are great for gravel biking from lake to lake (formerly open coal pits). Open to the public but a permit is required (maybe $15 or so). Sight seeing in Central City, KY after with fine dining at the Catfish Dock (the only fish we saw all day).

2021
October - 333 mile bike trip Pittsburgh to Washington, DC
The Mother of all Monday Club Adventures: A few years back a Camp Piomingo buddy of mine Laura D aka LD tells me about this great bike trip she went on with some other camp buddies. From the confluence of the Allegheny and the Monongahela Rivers (the headwaters of the Ohio River) in Pittsburgh to Washington DC. The first half is an old railroad bed (The Great Allegheny Passage) and where that ends in Cumberland, Maryland, across the street begins the last half, the C&O Canal Towpath following the Potomac River. 333 miles total. It began with a simple 6 hour drive to Pittsburgh from Louisville.

Map links:
Great Allegheny Passage - Rail Trail C&O Canal Towpath 

Photos on Facebook:
Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6 

2019
We worked our way downstream on the mighty Green River one leg at a time via peddle/paddle (bike/kayak/canoe) trips from Green River Lake to Mammoth Cave National Park.

Here are interactive bike and paddle route maps with some pictures of the 7 legs of the trip: Section #1 (26.8 miles - bike and paddle miles) Section #2 (21.6) Section #3 (36.3) Section #4 (30.9) Section #5 (36.9) Section #6 (26.7) Section #7 (24.1)

Green River Fun Facts to Know and Tell: The headwaters of Green River above Green River Lake imprinted historical greatness on the descendants of the earliest settlers of the area. Capt. Abraham Lincoln obtained the first recorded land grant in what is now Casey County with 800 acres along the Green River. His 8-year-old son, Thomas, narrowly escaped death during an Indian ambush that killed Capt. Lincoln in 1786. Without Thomas, we would never have heard of his son Abraham Lincoln, arguably the greatest President of the United States. Col. William Casey was one of the first explorers of the upper Green River region and Casey County is named for him. He eventually settled on Green River near what is now Columbia in Adair County. Casey married Jane Montgomery and their granddaughter married John Clemens. Their marriage brought them a son, Samuel Clemens, known to most by his pen name, Mark Twain. (source for this paragraph: https://fw.ky.gov/Fish/Pages/Green-River-above-the-Lake.aspx)