OLD NEW
We'd been trying to plan a canoe trip ever since our New Year's adventure in Florida. Finally, Myron, Dorcas, Wayne, and Linda helped us out by planning a trip on the New River during the first weekend in April. I hadn't been on the New River since a couple of trips in rented canoes during my college years. I was looking forward to going back.
This trip was going to be a little different. Christy and I planned to bring Saucony along for her first paddling experience. We were a little nervous about it. Would she stay in the canoe? For that matter, would she get in the canoe? More importantly, would she tip us over? There was only one way to find out.
Our plan was to paddle from the 221 access area (part of New River State Park) north to Mouth of Wilson, Va. We agreed to meet at the put-in Saturday morning. Christy, Saucony, and I made the long drive up through Wilkesboro, which seemed to take forever. I thought we could make it in less than 2 1/2 hours, but I was wrong. We arrived 30 minutes late, but that wasn't all bad. It rained the whole way there, but finally let up a few minutes before we reached the parking area. While Myron, Wayne, and Christy ran the shuttle, the sun even began to break out.
Getting Saucony in the boat wasn't too bad. She was skittish, and jumped in and out a couple of times before we could get away from shore. She settled down once we got going, though she has a bad habit of jumping from one side of the boat to the other. This has a funny tendency to make the boat turn in unintended ways. I feared that this would pose a hazard when we reached the rapids, but that was a problem we'd just have to deal with.
We put in before 11, with 15 miles or so ahead of us. The water was up from heavy rains though, and the current was strong. Despite our late start, we reached the halfway point and our intended lunch spot by 1pm. Along the way, I discovered a different river from what I remembered. My recollection had been a gentle mountain stream, flowing past woods and pastures. To some extent that was still true, but the forests and farms had been joined by lots of houses. A region that was sparsely inhabited 10 years ago now seemed to be the popular place for a retirement or summer home.
The river was different in another way, too. Every trip I'd ever done on the New featured rocks. Lots of rocks, and not much water. The trips I'd done were in the summer and fall, when the river is low and occasionally requires dragging the boat. This time though, the river just swept us along. Most of the rapids were washed out to just fast ripples. There was one good one early on though, featuring a small ledge. We ran it more or less correctly, though once again, the high water made the rapid very forgiving.
The highlight of the morning run was an Osprey that Wayne identified circling above the river. After lunch, the scenery got better. As we approached the confluence with the North Fork, the development along the river disappeared. Then, shortly before the confluence, we reached the only significant challenge of the trip. It was a class II rapid featuring a series of drops. We started out doing fine, but ran into trouble near the bottom. Between the final two ledges, the current swung to the right through a chute. I tried to make the turn, but the water was too fast, and Christy didn't realize what I'd had in mind. As a result, we got swept sideways over the final drop. Luckily, the river was in a forgiving mood, and we weren't punished for our error. We stayed upright and managed to straighten out before the final few ripples signaled the end of the rapid.
After the confluence we passed a series of high bluffs along the right side of the river. This signaled our approach to the camping area. We stopped at the Allegheny Access, which isn't actually an access at all. Instead, it's an official boat-in camping area managed by the state park. There was nobody around when we arrived, and we claimed a pretty spot in a field overlooking the river. Directly across from us was a scenic 100' cliff that begged to be climbed. I debated ferrying over to explore it, but was overcome by laziness. Instead, we spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the spring sunshine and relaxing. Later we enjoyed a nice fire courtesy of the free wood provided by the state park. This helped hold off the evening chill, as temperatures dropped near freezing.
Christy and I enjoyed an elaborate stir fry dinner, while everyone grilled steaks. Later, another couple arrived and set up in a nearby campsite. They'd had a rough run down the river. Apparently they'd gotten stuck on a rock in the middle of the class II rapid. They were by themselves, so there was no one around to help. We hadn't seen anyone on the river all day, so they had to get free on their own. Somehow they managed, but they didn't seem to be in any hurry to get back on the river. They said they planned to spend 2 nights at the campground before continuing their trip.
We followed up our lazy afternoon and relaxed evening with a downright unmotivated morning. After a breakfast of eggs and sausage, we hung around camp until noon. We only had about 4 miles to go to Mouth of Wilson, and we weren't in a hurry. Finally we started out, enjoying the outstanding scenery as the high bluffs continued on the right side of the river. There was very little development for the rest of the run, which brought back memories of the New River that I'd grown to love in college.
Saucony had behaved pretty well on Saturday, but today we ran into a problem. We approached some geese in the river, and she couldn't contain herself. She did what she was bred to do, which is retrieve them. Of course these geese were still alive, and calmly swam away from her as she chased them. It was kind of funny watching her swim around pursuing them. At least she didn't tip the boat over when she jumped out. When had some difficulty getting her back in the canoe, but finally managed when we reached shore.
The rest of the run was uneventful, with only a few small waves marking the rapid downstream from the confluence with Wilson Creek. We reached the takeout upstream of a dam by early afternoon. We arranged to meet in Elkin for a late lunch / early dinner, and wished the river farewell until the next run. We'd like to go back and run some more of the South Fork, and possibly canoe the less-explored North Fork as well.
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