Kayabiking – combining kayaking and biking

Kayabiking is a term Steve & Andy Long started using in the 1990s to describe their practice of using one gas-powered vehicle to float streams in the Cincinnati area. It’s a relatively simple idea
  • Take bikes, leave them at our river take-out and lock them there
  • Drive kayaks upstream and start the adventure
  • At take-out, unlock bikes, lock kayaks at that location
  • Bike back up to vehicle
  • Drive down to pick up kayaks
  • [REPEAT AS FREQUENTLY AS POSSIBLE! 🙂 ]

     

Here’s a picture of the van “ready for action” – 2 kayaks inside (bumble bee down upright and red hot upside down on top) with 2 bikes on the back

KAYABIKING SITES AND MATERIALS

Little Miami River – resources

East Fork State Park – An excellent location for wildlife and fishing – see MAP HERE or go to their website

  • Main boat launch for park is nice but the motor boat traffic can be substantial, especially on the weekends
  • Reisinger Road Launch – power boat launch but more remote than the main launch. Functional restrooms here (NOT flushable toilets – you get the idea, right?)  🙂
  • Tunnel Mill Ramp – hard to find (NO SIGNS so see MAP HERE) but worth it if you want to kayak or canoe in a remote section of the lake. No restrooms at this location other than the great outdoors

Great Miami River – resources

Maumee River – resources

Other Good Locations

Packing Lists

Water Level Data from USGS – anything over 300 cfs (cubic feet per second) is a cut-off for going into the water for stream monitoring

Excellent weather radar for checking what weather will be like for your kayabiking efforts HERE

Launch sites – Go Paddling is a nice app for finding paddling launch sites (iphone here)