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The 700 mile swim down the Cumberland River started on May 1, 1996 in Harlan Ky. and ended in Smithland Ky. July 4, 1996. The swim was to bring environmental awareness towards the Cumberland River watershed, which covers approx. 18,000 sq. mi. in area. From Harlan Ky. There was 134 miles to Cumberland Falls, then 103 miles across Lake Cumberland, 147 across Cordell Hull, 97 miles for Old Hickory, 69 miles down Cheatham Lake, 118 miles across Lake Barkley, and 31 miles below Barkley Dam to the Ohio River.
May 01, 1996 click here to read about getting in the water
in Harlan Ky.
An exert from the swim Journal: Barboursville Ky. May 1996: Leon, Doug and I had just finished hauling our equipment up the river bank to our campsite. It would be dark in an hour. We had a fire started and water heating up. All a sudden this guy came through our site. He acted like we weren't there until I asked him "what's up." He said he was looking for a stringer full of bass. He motioned how big the fish were by putting his hand to his elbow. I thought that was odd until Leon told him what we were doing on the river. Leon told him that I was swimming the river to bring attention to the pollution. The guy interrupted and said that he had swum the river. I looked upstream towards a bridge and thought maybe he had swam from there to here or something. He went on to say that he swam down the Cumberland and up the Mississippi to Detroit. Then he said he spent 6 months in a hospital in Alabama. That was the strange part, but I believed him about the hospital. Well I knew it was coming, he asked us if we had any guns. We all said no, even though I didn't go anywhere in southeastern Kentucky without my .45. Then he said the reason was is that there are wildcats on the Cumberland. He explained that if you are attacked by one you have to grab it by the neck with one hand and poke it's eyes out with the other. I heard enough of these stories. They would go on all night long. We still had some work to do. We hadn't eaten and we were in need of sleep. Rain was moving in and I needed a tarp. I thought I would ask this guy a serious question. I said "is there a Wal-mart around here". That was a mistake. He said go into the woods, take a right next to the big oak, go left past the wire fence, then walk 100 yards towards the open field..... He went on with these type directions for 5 minutes. He might have been right. This guy just got up and left. I watched him wonder off into the thick cane and poison ivy until he disappeared in the fog and darkness of the river. What made this story weird is a few minutes later another guy came by and asked if we had seen this other guy, they were looking for a stringer full of fish. I didn't sleep well that night.
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