We paddled to the McConnelsville Lock and Dam #7 and this is were we spent our first evening. This would just keep your hand off the cable that is covered with river slime. Side Note: Next time I do this, I will fashion and 3-4 foot piece of cordage or line with a 2" carabiner to attach to the cable to help hold in place during the locking. Once the doors close and the water drops, about 10 minutes, the outlet doors open and we were on our way. After entering the lock we looked for the cables hanging on each side of the lock wall (there are 10-20 on each side) to hold onto while in the locking process. After calling the Lock house the phone was answered and the lock door quickly was opened. I "screenshotted" the phone numbers from the website on my iPhone, so, I had their phone numbers available. However, the tender was mowing and didn't hear us. We blew our whistle to summon the tender (1 long followed by one short). We We reached the Rokeby Lock and Dam the approach is easy and is located on river-left. We made several short stops for snacks and stretching before the next point. There are numerous small river-side, rocky, "beaches" that offer easy places to stop at the low pool level we were at. We typically paddle for 1 to 1.5 hours and make stops along the routes and this trip was no different. and for that matter all the rivers / creeks in the Muskingum River Conservancy District are very low for this time of the year (mid-June), but there are no worries of dragging bottom, at all. The Muskingum River was not running very high. However, if you are used to smaller, swifter moving rivers and creeks, you will feel like this is more of an open-water paddle. We packed our kayaks for the next 3-days, into our 3-yakaks.
no issues here and the launch ramp was easy to access and not overly steep. We put-in about ˝ mile south of the Philo Dam at a lunch ramp. The attitudes and personalities of EVERYONE we encountered were pleasant, informative, FUNNY, and very hospitable! It was obvious that each person cared about their job and the kayakers that were through-boating! Each tender knew we were coming from the phone calls from the previous (up-river) Lock Tenders. (Something needs to be said here of the staff Lock Tenders. Our trip began in Philo, after stopping at Philo Lock & Dam #9 to purchase our Lock passes ($15 per kayak, per year) which are required to lock-through each dam (park on the west side of the bridge and walk down to the lock-tender's hut). Was looking for a weekend trip or a several day trip and the State of Ohio hit a home run with the Muskingum River "Park" and lock system! I was a bit hesitant to make this trip blind, but, after reading the other trip reports here, I decided to go for it!
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