How is it that in 30-plus years covering the go-fast boating world, I’ve on waterways from West Okoboji Lake in Iowa to the Mediterranean Sea off Malta, but I’ve never been to Lake Cumberland in Kentucky? It’s a fair question and I have no good answer. With two established poker runs bookending the summer and a thriving powerboat scene, Lake Cumberland should be a place I’ve been at least a dozen times.
Instead, today will be my first. Shame. Shame.
But that said, I couldn’t have picked a better weekend. First, the 17th annual Lake Cumberland Thunder starts today, and I’ll be in excellent company that includes friends/event organizers Justin Lucas, who owns a Statement 360 catamaran, and new Nor-Tech dealers Dan and Julie Weiss.
In the interest of total transparency and blunt honesty, I’ve avoided Lake Cumberland based on Harmon Creek raft-up photographs. I’ve never loved crowds or being “stuck” in traffic. Those raft-ups appear to combine the worst of both.
That scene doesn’t just look like a slice of hell to me. It looks like the pie.
Still, I am going to bury my anti-social instincts and be there this weekend. I don’t promise to like it, but I do promise to be present—as early as this afternoon thanks to Dan and Julie Weiss on the Nor-Tech 390 Sport center console—and at the very least pretend to enjoy it.
On the other hand, I know without question that I’m going to dig the 76 Falls area, the waterway itself and the surrounding natural scenery, just as I appreciate those elements of the Bluegrass State’s Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley, the home-waters for the annual Kuttawa Cannonball Run.
I am even more certain I’ll dig the people. Even if you happen to be a Northern California Yankee, though one recently transplanted to Southwest Florida, Southerners treat you as family. The Southern hospitality thing? It’s real.
So Lake Cumberland, here I come. Sorry I’m late.