I call it 3 Mile Road, because it goes for three miles from highway 192 down to the Rockcastle River. This is private property, but it looks to me like anybody can go down there. I've seen several others, driving different kinds of vehicles. From Somerset, you go out 192 towards London, and go most of the way to the Rockcastle River. The road is a mile or two on the left, past Morgans country store. It is almost hidden. Just after you turn in, you will see an old garage or something on the right, and a little clearing. The road is gravel and goes downhill after passing the barn. It gradually makes it's way down to Beech Creek, crosses it, and then winds around, up and down through Beech Creek Hollow until it comes to the river. From there a river road goes to the left, upstream. It gets narrow, and I put a lot more scuff marks on my Jeep. It goes around to near the mouth of Lick Creek. We drove it to just around a bend, and then found a deep gully across the road. That was the end of the line.

The first time I went there was with my friend Tom, and his son David. I had passed by the beginning of this road many times, and finally inquired about it summer before last. We had one vehicle at the time, Tom's Suzuki, so we parked at the creek and walked. I didn't have my map with me, so I wasn't sure what was what. We followed the road for a mile or so and still didn't get to the river, so we turned back and eventually drove to Morgan's store. The owner told us the road is three miles back to the river. No wonder we didn't get to it. That was on a weekend.

The next Wed. after work I drove out there in my Jeep to check it out more. I was really anxious to get back there. There are several sloppy stretches on that road, and some water holes. Some are muddy, but not bad. I went as far as the worst one by myself, pictured on the right, and decided to wait until Tom could come with his vehicle. One end is high and I wasn't sure about that, for coming back out. I couldn't go around it, creek on one side, trees on the other. I sure didn't want to get stuck late in the afternoon. I turned around there and almost got stuck doing that. That stock Jeep doesn't have enough flex. I always carried a come-a-long and other stuff, just in case.

Not long after, one weekend, Tom and his wife and son rode in his Suzuki and I drove my Jeep, and we went back to the river. That hole there wasn't too bad. We did put some rocks in the deep end, and that helped us get out.

On the way in there I made a few pictures of Tom's Suzuki in various places.

We finally got to the river and took a walk down there. David went in for a swim. We saw a lot of big rocks out there.

Next we got back in our vehicles and started along the river road, part of it shown below. It isn't bad, but gets narrow, and brush rubbed my Jeep on both sides. I came out of that place with a lot more scuff marks on the Jeep, but going out in the boonies is why I bought it.

On the way back it got kind of narrow and the Suzuki is narrower, so I wanted to park my Jeep and ride with Tom. I had to turn around first and got where I couldn't move. That stock Jeep doesn't have enough flex. Tom had to pull me forward a little so I could get traction. Other times I've lost traction because of insufficient flex. If I ever get another one, I'll have some more flexibility put into it.

We stopped at one place where I heard rapids and went down to check the river. I found a little rapids down there, kind of a wide chute. The river is interesting back in there; it is a lot of places. The whole experience of this area is interesting--driving way back in there to the river, and then driving along the river. We found a couple of rapids. Somewhere in the vicinity of this rapid, we came to a sloppy trench in the road, but got through it ok.

From this rapid here, I could see a corner of the river upstream, shown below, and made a few pictures.

Click here for a bigger version.

From near that rapid we rode in the Suzuki to the corner and went around to the right. We didn't get far because of a deep gully across the road. End of that run. We went back and stopped at another rapid along the way--parked by the road and walked down to the river.

One view of the rapids, facing downstream. Tom and David are on the rocks at right.

Tom by the rapids. Tom is a good Christian person. One of the nicest I ever met. We've had a lot of fun in the boonies.

This photo was made by Tom. There were some pretty rough rollers out there then.

This is 3-Mile Rd., on the way back out. It's a long, crooked way back in there, with some up and down. We enjoyed it.

| Home | Central Ky Contents |