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RIVESVILLE - What a long, strange trip it's been ... for the kayak ramp at Palatine Park.
A short, strange trip, anyway.
The handicapped-accessible ramp that's a key fixture at the popular park and outdoor music venue in Fairmont set sail last week for a time.
Palatine is nestled along the banks of the Monongahela River on the city's east side.
Mother Nature, and a massive dam, likely set the direction for the dock this past Monday, Kris Cinalli said.
"We found Monday morning the fishing pier was buckled, and the kayak dock was gone," said Cinalli, the Marion County administrator who books acts for the park's popular summer concert series.
The Mon was already running high and a little fast due to a spate of heavy rains earlier, he said.
A planned release of water from the Tygart Lake Dam near Grafton downriver didn't help, the administrator added.
The dock was spotted later that morning near a former power plant in Rivesville, Cinalli said, which is about three miles away.
"If we hadn't gotten it then, it probably would have kept going and wound up at the Opekiska Lock and Dam," he said, referring to the aquatic control measure on the Mon near Morgantown.
"We likely wouldn't have been able to get it all then," Cinalli said.
Cinalli sounded a call of general quarters.
A team of Marion County maintenance staffers assembled, and the Winfield District Volunteer Fire Department put a boat on the water, as well.
"I didn't want Winfield committing resources," he said.
That was because of 911, he said.
"I didn't want to take them away from emergency calls," he continued. "But they volunteered. And I wasn't gonna say no."
Cinalli motored over U.S. 19 and down to the town. Employees of a convenience store on Main Street had already spied the dock in the water.
"That way," they said, motioning him toward Greentown and a former power plant - where the dock's journey was eventually wrangled by the volunteer fire company.
The kayak ramp is pricy at $20,000-$25,000, Cinalli said.
"That's what it would cost to order a new one," he said. "And it would have taken a while. The idea of having one is to make the park as accessible as can - for everyone."
It took around three hours to make that three-mile trip back to Palatine, Cinalli said.
"That's because it kept dipping down in the water," he said.
"Kudos to everybody who came forward," he continued.
"I can't thank them enough," Cinalli said, "from the Winfield VFD to our workers to the people in Rivesville who told us what they saw."
The dock was reinstalled that same evening.
AccuWeather is calling for a good chance of showers and thunderstorms through the weekend and all next week for the region.
Meanwhile, Palatine Park will be back in the music business weekend. The park is back-to-back tribute shows to Linkin Park and Chris Cornell Aug. 8.