We were in Eastern Kentucky this past weekend, and we chose to spend our Saturday kayaking with the…read morecompany that runs Hatfield-McCoy River Trails in Pikeville, KY. Now, I will be totally honest and say that this was not my first choice. I wanted to go to Red River Gorge to kayak, as that's one of my favorite areas in the state; however, the water levels were so low that the kayaking options were extremely limited. After learning that news we looked around online and discovered Hatfield-McCoy River Trails. We called, asked a few questions, and decided to give it a shot.
When we arrived everything seemed as usual. They have a small venue where they sell a few items and snacks, there are kayaks and tubes all around, and they also sell passes to zip line (though I don't know much about that, as we did not participate). We were loaded onto a bus and taken to the drop-in site, which is a short trip from the starting location. It was a bit odd, as it was next to several restaurant locations. I mean, we got into the water directly behind a Captain D's. But, once you take off the trip becomes a bit more scenic, which is nice. There are sections of the river that seem completely in nature, but in actuality you're next to a highway the entire time, so often you will hear vehicles driving by up above you. The point where the river trail ends is also very commercial. You stop at a boat dock in front of a Texas Roadhouse and shopping plaza. So, if you're looking for a secluded nature outing this trip is definitely not it.
Overall the river is fairly clean as far as random trash goes, we saw a few cans, etc. in the water; however, we probably saw 200+ tires on our four mile journey. I know that seems like an exaggeration, but I assure you it is not. I may even be under-selling the amount of tires in that water.
The trip itself was pretty fun. We had a group of family members, so we had a good time together. The river is very calm with a gentle current that will push you along for approximately the first three miles, but the last 3/4 of a mile or so you have to paddle hard to keep yourself going. There is also little to no shade on most of the trail. So, by the time we reached the end dock we were exhausted and extremely hot, as we had gone on one of the hottest days of the year.
Now, here's where things really went wrong. I probably would have given Hatfield-McCoy River Trails a three star rating if not for what happened when we reached the dock, exhausted, and pulled our kayaks from the water. There was no one there to pick us up! I kid you not, we were alone with no idea how to get back to the location we had started from. So, we did what any reasonable person would do and called. We were told they had "waited on us for a long time" and had to go ahead and leave. Are you serious?!
There were several people behind us on the trail, so we were not the last kayakers and we had not taken too much time - we didn't even stop along the trail to swim or anything (I did not want to get into that tire-infested water). Of course we were upset, and they said they would send someone to pick us up. At this point three additional kayakers pulled up to the dock behind us, as they had just finished the trail. (Two additional kayakers came over a half hour later as well.) We all waited there on the dock, in direct sunlight on one of the hottest days of the year, for thirty minutes before we called again. This time a different person answered the phone and seemed shocked to hear that we were there waiting and said they would send someone to pick us up right away. A few minutes later the bus arrived, we loaded on, and it took them an additional 15 minutes or so to load the kayaks. When the driver boarded the bus we finally thought we would be returning to our vehicle where we could bask in the sweet sweet air-conditioning and get something cold to drink.
Nope. The driver then told us we would have to ride back with him to the drop-in site to take the kayaks to another group of people they had just dropped off there, because apparently they only have one bus and enough kayaks for one group at a time to be on the river.
Ok, I get that this is a small operation, and that's fine. But, schedule the tours further apart, get another bus, get more kayaks, or something. Obviously kayaking is an outdoor activity, obviously summer weather is hot, obviously you're going to be tired from paddling; however, we were actually sick from the heat and direct sunlight by the time we finally made it back to our vehicle. No one should have to wait on a boat dock with literally no shade whatsoever for over half an hour for a ride to pick them up after a river trail excursion that they paid for. We were told someone would be there to pick us up, and when we called to ask why they were not there we were told they had waited and had to leave. That is no way to treat customers. I will never return to Hatfield-McCoy River Trails.
