Taking a break from helping Mingo residents with flood cleanup last week, the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church Youth Group and their chaperones took to the Tug Fork for an adventure.

The group from Huntington, W.Va., came to assist Mingo Countians with flood relief work, said Cindy Hardwick, a group leader who arranged the afternoon of fun with Hatfield/McCoy River Rats owner Donald and Cathy McCoy.

Meeting at the Hatfield/McCoy Park in McCarr, Ky., the group left their bus for the parking lot to find water vessels aboard and around a bus which Donald McCoy turned into a River Rat mobile, capable of hauling equipment which he said is about 17 canoes and kayaks and seven tubes.

"I think we got 28," Hardwick announced to the McCoys, who had three safety guides ready to go with the youngsters, obviously eager to hit the water on the 80-plus degree day.

While the majority piled into the canoes and Kayaks and headed upstream, a few relaxed in tubes on the McCarr section of river which was about 3- to 5-feet deep last week.

"We do mission work every year," said Marla Tolley, a chaperone who stayed behind with Anna Williams to sun in the Tug Fork.

The youth group members give up a week of their summer every year and fundraiser throughout the year to finance the trip Tolley said, adding the 40-member group included some who have been volunteering for years and some doing it their first year. The youth group is on a three-year cycle, volunteering one year some where in the United States, one year out of the country and one year locally. When the group heard about the flooding in southwest West Virginia, they decided to help here this year, Tolley said, adding they had been to Musick Bottom, Varney, Red Jacket, North Matewan, Gilbert, and Pigeon Creek, pulling insulation, shoveling mud, installing hot water heaters, landscaping and a list of other activities.

"They're an awesome group of volunteers and parents," Tolley said, add-ing the ages range from 12 to 60, which is the age of a magnificent volunteer cook who has a great hot meal waiting on the hungry crews when they return from working all day.

Ironically, the group floated across the relatively quiet river which two months prior had swollen beyond its banks and contributed to the messes they were helping clean. Despite the remnants of trash along the Tug Fork, Donald McCoy said when one looked past that, there is a beautiful body of water.

Although the Hatfield McCoy River Rats has been around eight or nine years, the business didn't start renting their equipment until about a year ago, Donald McCoy said, asserting his reasons for starting the business in addition to the Hatfield/McCoy Resort, a restaurant he and his wife own in Matewan, was to have fun.

However, seeing the rivers included as tourism attractions after eight or nine years is exciting to McCoy, who said, "I like the saying, 'The water trails have begun.'"

Tug Fork River Trail, which Pike County Fiscal Court secured funding for in May this year, is another project eastern Kentucky officials are proposing to market opportunities for adventure tourism. The project entails placing boat ramps along the Tug Fork from Pike County to Martin County on the Kentucky side, while the Pike County Fiscal Court has invited Mingo County officials to join the endeavor and create access on the West Virginia side.

"If we're going to capitalize on tourism, we need a variety of options." Donald McCoy said, adding the area has several attractive bodies of water.

Although local citizens have taken the river scene for granted, McCoy said River Rats has been busy accepting invitations to places such as the Breaks Interstate Park in Virginia, Paintsville Lake in Johnson County Kentucky and Elkhorn City's Russell Fork in Pike County, which draws people from all over the world to Russell Fork during white water season.

The Tug Fork, a 154-mile tributary of the Big Sandy River, already boasts numerous attractions and a portion is already known as a white water site. Beginning in extreme southwestern West Virginia's McDowell County, it runs through southwestern Virginia and eastern Kentucky through Hatfield-McCoy country.

Martin County, the last county through which the Tug Fork flows before meeting the Levisa Fork in Lawrence County — in Louisa — to form the Big Sandy River, included viewing sites along the Tug in its adventure tourism plans. The plans also state there is potential for a canoe outfitter to develop a canoe livery service at Warfield Landing.

The mountains surrounding the Tug Fork are already dotted with ATV trails, another popular venue to adventure tourists, as well as some biking and hiking trails for those who prefer non-motorized touring. The Tug Fork River Trail project would create access points for boats, non-motorized and gasoline powered, as well as for those who enjoy fishing.

Although the future looks promising for a company renting boats, Donald McCoy said he is not in the business for money.

"I want to have fun," McCoy said. "This is a way for me to get a taste of this type of living."