Huntington, WV to Pittsburgh, PA

Total Miles Traveled 986

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We departed Huntington, WV on July 18^th and traveled 38 miles to Gallipolis, OH to another free dock provided by a city.  The riverfront was bustling with hundreds of people as we arrived.  This was the annual Hoop Project that raises funds to go back into the revitalization of downtown Gallipolis, it’s a weekend of music, food and mainly basketball.

There were twelve basketball courts set up on the main riverfront road.  The tournament is a three-on three event that includes divisions of all ages.  The teams are from local communities but also places like Columbus, Cincinnati, Lancaster and even Kentucky—everyone is welcome.  We really enjoyed watching the competition!

The rain we experienced on our way upriver has increased the current flow and debris.  At some narrow sections of the river, we only cruise around 6 mph and some of the locks are full of debris.

 

A city dock submerged...

On July 19^th we traveled 51 miles to an anchorage at Buffington Island.  This anchorage is behind the island away from the river channel.  There is a boat ramp behind the island but no information regarding depths.  I have been documenting the depths and conditions of the places we stop on Active Captain, an app boaters use for information about anchorages, marinas, and docks.  We slowly eased our way past the boat ramp and anchored in about 13 feet of water.  This was a nice quiet anchorage and an opportunity to watch three deer swim from the island to the mainland.

Our intention was to leave our anchorage at daybreak, but we awoke to dense fog hanging on until 9:30, we should have slept in.

We weighed anchor and followed our tracks the same way we came in then traveled 45 miles on July 20^th to Marietta, OH.  We had made reservations to stay here a couple of days, and I had our mail forwarded here.  The marina was much smaller than we expected and only room for two or three boats our size.  The pump out was located on the inside pier, and I bumped bottom trying to get to it, so we decided to wait until Pittsburgh. 

We have seen several sternwheelers but this one really moves, they have sternwheeler races at Marietta in September.

The Love Lock Tree

Huge Ships Wheel chandelier in the lobby of the Lafayette Hotel, pretty cool.

We spent most of the first day catching up on maintenance items and laundry but explored the city the next day.  This is a very historical city, during 1788, pioneers to the Ohio Country established Marietta as the first permanent settlement of the new United States in the Territory Northwest of the Ohio River.  The visitors center was very informative, and we plan to return here on our way back.

We departed Marietta on July 22^nd and traveled 58 miles to an anchorage at Fish Creek Island.  On July 23^rd we traveled 39 miles to Wellsburg, WV.  This is another free dock provided by the city, as we approached the dock, we couldn’t believe its size and condition.  After docking we found that this dock is provided by the Crooked Dock Restaurant, located along the riverbank.  The city dock is much smaller and upstream but staying overnight at this dock is not a problem.  We ate our dinner at the restaurant and met a few very nice local boaters.

Since we had two locks to pass through, we departed Wellsburg at daybreak and traveled 48 miles to Beaver, PA.  We have seen a lot of barges hauling coal and docked removing the coal from the barge.  This is the first time we’ve seen them filling a barge with coal.  From the looks of the volume of coal coming out of the chute, it appears it wouldn’t take long to fill a barge.

This is a massive new chemical plant being constructed near Beaver, PA.  One of the locals told us it’s a multi-billion-dollar project owned by Shell Oil.  They said they moved a mountain to make room for this facility.

On the way to Beaver, PA we passed our first nuclear power plant, I Googled it to see what plant it was, and this was the first review, a five star, that popped up:

 “Ate a fish outta the river by the plant and grew a third arm out my chest.  I would have gave it 1 star but the new third arm is too damn handy”.

When we arrived at Beaver, PA we noticed a dock that was not on the charts, so we eased our way in from the river channel to the dock.  We had 13 feet of water to the dock, but according to my calculations the river is 13 feet above normal pool.  We had planned to anchor because we couldn’t fit under the railroad bridge on the Beaver River.  We found that this is the Bridgewater Crossing Public Boat Dock and according to the locals, staying overnight is permitted.  We’ve kept moving up river at a faster pace than we normally travel because of a lock closure at the Montgomery Lock on July 26^th.  Since we have passed the lock, we will slow down and spend more time during our stops. 

Bridge to enter the Beaver River.

After spending two days at the Bridgewater Crossing dock, we traveled 26 miles to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, mile “0” of the Ohio River.  The Point State Park is located at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, forming the Ohio River at Pittsburgh.

We stopped for lunch tying up to the North Wall free dock and walked the riverfront before returning to the boat.

The Duquesne Incline is pictured on the left, it was completed in 1877 and is 800 feet long, 400 feet high and is inclined at a 30 degree angle scaling Mt. Washington. 

We traveled another 9 miles up the Allegheny River to Fox Chapel Marina.  We will spend a week at the marina catching up on preventative maintenance tasks, laundry, and provisioning before we continue up the Allegheny River.