Latest Paddling News

One of my goals is to paddle a new river each New Year's Day as well as every other chance I get. Toward that goal, nine of us paddled the Hyco River near South Boston, VA on New Year's Day. It was good to have Julia join us for a first time New Year's Day trip with our group. Forrest, being the only person who had paddled this section before, guided us. The water was between a 15" to 18" higher than normal based on the depth of weeds in the water on one of the three tributaries we paddled. It was a nice section of river with interesting scenery. Being dam controlled, I'm not sure the Hyco was as high as the tributaries but it was definitely higher than normal. It was a little windy with temperatures dropping but not so windy nor cold to keep of us from enjoying this new adventure. The paddling actually helped my sore back which was feeling better at the end of the day than that morning.

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Fifteen miles of paddling on a new river, two Bald Eagles, four miles night hiking, and one night of camping. Real adventure when you throw in the first 3-1/2 miles was side to side of a very wide river finding clear passages for gear laden boats. That lost time added to difficulty of finding the marking for the camping takeout made us set up camp in the dark. (Fortunately it was a full moon night!) Then low to mid twenties temperature (not too unusual for our trips) except this time with a burning ban (no campfires). No problem - we actually got almost hot when hiking four miles at night. After a late bunk in for most of us (somebody got up earlier than the rest of us and felt the need to announce it), the one of us who has a reputation of being dangerous with a camp stove set his jacket and pants on fire. Saturday was a beautiful day and provided a beautiful paddle out. As usual, it was great fun and everyone is looking forward to our next adventure!

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The following pictures are of Wilson's Creek, Holladay Island, New Topsail Island, Masonboro Island, and Stoney Fork Creek. As you can see, our paddling varies from steep creeks to coastal paddling/camping. It's all good!

April 30. Le B., Scott W., and Scott T. guided me down WILSON'S CREEK.. This was my first run and I was plenty nervous. Le and Scott W had run this run several times and was very comfortable on it. Scott T. had run it once before and had a good run. Le would describe the drops as we approached and Scott W. would set up for pictures and assistance which resulted in an excellent job of guiding. After Le described what to expect, I would see his helmet disappear as he went over the drop and I would watch to see where he showed up hoping I could duplicate that path. Scott W. took a long slide down Sliding Rock with a nice splash at the bottom. With rapids like Ten Foot Falls, Triple Ledge, Boat Buster, and several others with names that failed to fully describe the intensity they produced, I found most with only a small pool between them and some so close I had to run them as one. Got caught in the hydraulic at Rail but after fighting it a little was able to back out upright. MANY THANKS for their shepherding. ............................I thoroughly enjoyed this steep creek. With a combination of adrenalin from my being excited and just plain scared, I was really whipped when Le said "You have now paddled Wilson's Creek". I had not even been upside down - close several times but stayed upright as did everyone else. Then in a little class 2+ no name rapid within sight of the take out, I flipped. I was just so drained, I couldn't even set up for a roll. As I emptied my kayak, my knees (correction -my legs) were shaking. ............................... Here are a few of my thoughts about Wilson's Creek: Good place for a face mask! More blind steep drops in 2.4 miles that I had ever experienced in four times that many miles before. Long boats especially long canoes would be out of place here. Duckies would be like pinball in 3D. Continuous rapids - practically no let up. Definitely a river for the higher skilled kayaker!

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April 8 & 9, 06. Bill, Ed, Keith, Steve, and I paddled about a mile to Holladay Island which is about half way across the Chowan River just up stream of Edenton, NC for our annual spring paddling/camping trip. It was very windy with whitecaps were beginning to appear. The current was going the opposite direction of the waves and swells which was causing us to have to really be careful because we were trying to go sideways to them. The Bill and Keith in an open canoe had to paddle into the largest waves which were coming in sets - then turn and go for the island between wave sets to keep from being swamped. Sorta like tacking in a sail boat. It's a good thing they were used to waves from their whitewater paddling. The wind picked up even more once we arrived at the island and by the time we had set up camp on one of the platforms, the whitecaps were solid and really rough. Good sleeping that night while listening to the waves splashing against the Cypress trees. After breakfast the next morning, we decided to paddle back to the shore thinking the strong whitecaps might come again since it was still fairly windy. We had been told about a creek just upstream from the put in. We paddled up Stumpy Creek (well protected from the wind) until we came to a bridge which was as far as we go. (Not enough water on the other side of the bridge). Saw our first big snake this year. He was a mean one and not happy that we were in his water. Saw a bunch of small turtles - Thought about Ann, our turtle expert.

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Thanksgiving Weekend 05 - Ann, Bill, Ed, Keith, Steve, and I paddled to New Topsail Island for our annual Thanksgiving trip. This is a large Island - so long we did not even get close to the other end after walking an hour. We were evidently the only people on the island. There were hundreds of large seashells, those of us interested in taking a few back had a nice collection. The night was a little cool but we had a good fire and the tents made for good sleeping. Back on mainland the next afternoon, we found it had gotten to 28 degrees during the night but both days were nice for paddling behind the island and exploring the beach. Picture above shown sunrise. It was beautiful.

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April 1st and 2nd, 05. Our trip was an adventure. We knew the water would be too rough to paddle straight out for 2 miles to the first island we had planned going to so we changed the destination on Thursday night before leaving early Friday morning. We went to Masonboro Island which was still a 2 mile paddle but the paddle was up the Inland Waterway and was somewhat protected. Masonboro Island is a fairly large island but there are no houses, roads, or people there. There was a small craft advisory due to the weather so we paddled up the waterway and out the Carolina Inlet but did not go out thru the breakers. We looked at a couple places we considered might make a good a camping spot but decided to set up camp on top of a sand dune that was 40 or 50 feet high. It gave us a good view of the breakers, of the whole inlet, of fishermen across the inlet on Carolina Beach point, and the mainland across the Inland Waterway. We enjoyed finding some nice large seashells, then ate supper, and sit around the campfire until around 10:30 when it started a light rain so we figured it was a good time to go to bed. Within an hour, we had tremendous winds which were very strong. Being in an exposed area our tent was flapping so loud, that we couldn't hear each other talk, I thought the storm would blow over in an hour or so and that would be it. I expected a beautiful day the next day thinking the storm would be gone by morning for sure. A little after midnight, I began to get concerned about the force of the winds when I looked out and saw the canopy had lifted up and was sitting in a different spot. At 3:00 AM it seemed to let up a little so several of us got out of the tents to survey the damage. Keith's tent was destroyed. Ed's tent was damaged and had my kayak laying across it. I yelled to Ed (inside the tent) to see if he was ok. He said to leave the kayak where it was because he was holding on to it to keep from being blown away. It had moved the tent Bill and I was in 2 feet with us in it (slid over the plastic ground tarp). Keith reported his tent had been lifted up into the air and moved about 1-1/2 feet and sit down in a different direction when the tent poles started breaking. the fly had been blown away. The canopy was torn up and the steel pipe frame was bent and what was left of it was on the ground. Stoves, lanterns, chairs, food, tables, everything was scattered with some being partially buried in the sand. Just as we were getting the tents back together, it hit again. The bottom 2 pictures above was taken from our tent early the next morning showing what we woke up to. The wind was so bad when we got up, we stated packing. Our gear was no good for cooking but if we had tried to cook would have been full of sand anyway. We didn't think it safe to paddle to the mainland until about 10:30 when it let up an little. It hit again when we were in sight of the dock we were to take out at. It took one guy 3 tries and about 30 minutes get to the dock even he was no more that 50 yards out. By the time we got our vehicles loaded, it was near lunch time and we had not eaten so we had an early lunch. The waitress told us it blew down an elephant down the road. We found it was a large either plastic or wooden shape of an elephant as an attraction for a zoo. We saw a street lamp pole (metal) that had been bent and another was down. From all I can learn, we had winds around 60 MPH (at least). It made for a good adventure! This was my first time packing a kayak for an overnight trip. I am learning how to pack like a backpacker.

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STONEY FORK CREEK

March 25, 05- Stoney Fork Creek. This was a new one for most of us. Kirby was our guide since he had run it before. We had 7 paddlers. This was a very good creek with a couple interesting drops. The class 3 near the takeout was very interesting. Bill went down on a large rock at the bottom of the rapid for safety. He called for a rope but we couldn't see much need or hear what he was describing so we started our runs. BIG LESSON LEARNED! Next time I will listen to the guy with eyes that can see what I can't when he ask for a throw rope. Ed was the first to run it and he flipped part way down the drop. He was out of his kayak as he went around the big rock Bill was standing on. What Bill had been trying to warn us about was a sieve/undercut hidden just past the big rock and a lot of the water was being pushed into it. Fortunately Ed went to the left of it but his kayak went into it. The rest of us run the rapid not realizing Ed's boat was in the sieve/undercut. It took us about an hour to get the kayak out. At first it was showing (as in the left bottom picture above) but then as we tried to attach a rope it went down into the undercut and we ended up going in from behind the undercut rock and pulling the kayak thru the undercut. Good thing it was able to go thru. Better thing that Ed wasn't in there too! Troublesome Creek has an adventure sometimes!