Thursday, August 19, 2004
Southwest Creek, August 18, 2004
Paddle trip August 18, 2004, Southwest Creek
We put in at Route 53 at 10:00 and took out at Rte 17 shortly after 3:00. We picked up scattered litter at the put-in but had to leave the mattress and other stuff under the sign, "Do not litter. This site is monitored)!
The water was still very high due to Bonnie and Charley. Indications were that it was as much as three feet higher earlier. Wish we could have done it then..
These high waters flushed out this creek. We encountered scattered trash along the way, all of which was discarded off the bridges. This trash is floated off the main stream back into the swamps where it will remain forever. Perhaps it will build up in the next 100 yeasrs and fill in all our wetlands.
The high waters also flushed out the fallen trees and old logs in the river. The high water cut across the normal bends in the river and these logs became trapped in the woods where they will remain until a higher flood of waters picks them up again.
We follow the flow of water when canoeing down a stream. At times we were mislead as to where the main stream went and we followed the same course these floating logs took only to be come trapped behind them.
Sometimes we were able to break through these logs jams. At other times we had to turn back and find the original stream bed where we missed the turn. I was interesting to be canoeing through the woods.
Also, there were new blowdowns. The present high water enbled us to work our way around most of them without getiing out of our boats. While Dale and Brian were working on removing one of these (see pictures) Tom and Marie made their way around it.
These new blowdowns will make a portage around each necessary after the water recedes. Blowdowns like these occur regularly on all rivers and need to be removed to maintain an open free flowing Canoe Trail.
Brian and Dale plan to do Cowhorn Creek to Rhodestown Road on our new County Canoe Trail next Wednesday to see and clear whatever is necessary to keep it open. This is a wonderful and most valuable service they are providing. I am sure they will appreciate additonal volunteers.
We encountered a very serious and disappointing situation on Southwest Creek between Route 53 and Haws Run Road bridge.
Alligator weed was so thick it was almost not to possible to get through it. As the water level goes down we expect it will close the river completely.
This is a shame as this is a lovely long river to paddle for all to enjoy. Can anything be done about this alligator weed?
Participants were Dale Weston and Brian Wheat from Jacksonville, Tom Fineco from New Bern and Marie Justen from Spooners Creek and Elmer Eddy from Swansboro. Pictures are courtesy of Marie Justen. Elmer
Elmer, The White Oak River TrashmanStewards of the White Oak River BasinPlease visit: www.whiteoakstewards.org----------------------------------------------------------------
We put in at Route 53 at 10:00 and took out at Rte 17 shortly after 3:00. We picked up scattered litter at the put-in but had to leave the mattress and other stuff under the sign, "Do not litter. This site is monitored)!
The water was still very high due to Bonnie and Charley. Indications were that it was as much as three feet higher earlier. Wish we could have done it then..
These high waters flushed out this creek. We encountered scattered trash along the way, all of which was discarded off the bridges. This trash is floated off the main stream back into the swamps where it will remain forever. Perhaps it will build up in the next 100 yeasrs and fill in all our wetlands.
The high waters also flushed out the fallen trees and old logs in the river. The high water cut across the normal bends in the river and these logs became trapped in the woods where they will remain until a higher flood of waters picks them up again.
We follow the flow of water when canoeing down a stream. At times we were mislead as to where the main stream went and we followed the same course these floating logs took only to be come trapped behind them.
Sometimes we were able to break through these logs jams. At other times we had to turn back and find the original stream bed where we missed the turn. I was interesting to be canoeing through the woods.
Also, there were new blowdowns. The present high water enbled us to work our way around most of them without getiing out of our boats. While Dale and Brian were working on removing one of these (see pictures) Tom and Marie made their way around it.
These new blowdowns will make a portage around each necessary after the water recedes. Blowdowns like these occur regularly on all rivers and need to be removed to maintain an open free flowing Canoe Trail.
Brian and Dale plan to do Cowhorn Creek to Rhodestown Road on our new County Canoe Trail next Wednesday to see and clear whatever is necessary to keep it open. This is a wonderful and most valuable service they are providing. I am sure they will appreciate additonal volunteers.
We encountered a very serious and disappointing situation on Southwest Creek between Route 53 and Haws Run Road bridge.
Alligator weed was so thick it was almost not to possible to get through it. As the water level goes down we expect it will close the river completely.
This is a shame as this is a lovely long river to paddle for all to enjoy. Can anything be done about this alligator weed?
Participants were Dale Weston and Brian Wheat from Jacksonville, Tom Fineco from New Bern and Marie Justen from Spooners Creek and Elmer Eddy from Swansboro. Pictures are courtesy of Marie Justen. Elmer
Elmer, The White Oak River TrashmanStewards of the White Oak River BasinPlease visit: www.whiteoakstewards.org----------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, August 17, 2004
Second Old Dam Up Pettiford Creek
Two Pictures on our New Wilderness Trail to be on Pettiford Creek
Here are two pictures, #s DCP01153 and 52 on a dark rainy day on our new proposed Wilderness Canoe Trail on Pettiford Creek at the original first old dam upstream of the large beaver dam. This is a very historical spot where corn meal was grown for our early settlers.
Apparently it became to small to suply their needs as it was broken through ad a new and larger one was bult downstream. Both are unique and very intersting and picturesque locatons. An old cemetary is nearby in the forest on high ground.
The other destroyed dam is below the beaver dam where we usually eat lunch when paddling upstream as we have to now. With this canoe trail opened up we will be able to paddle downstream with the flow all the way.
Apparently it became to small to suply their needs as it was broken through ad a new and larger one was bult downstream. Both are unique and very intersting and picturesque locatons. An old cemetary is nearby in the forest on high ground.
The other destroyed dam is below the beaver dam where we usually eat lunch when paddling upstream as we have to now. With this canoe trail opened up we will be able to paddle downstream with the flow all the way.
Pettiford Creek, A possible Wilderness Canoe Trail
Pettiford Creek
We beat this river!
On Sunday, August 15, 2004, Brian Wheat and Elmer Eddy launched an Old Town 174 into Pettiford Creek in Croatan Forest off Millis Road in Carteret County.
We chose this day to do this as Hurricanes Bonnie and Charley had dropped several days of rain on the water shed. Elmer checked out the water level as being his paddle length, 8 feet, plus one inch Saturday afternoon when the rain stopped. This is the distance from the top edge of the guard rail on the bridge over the creek.
At this level the creek was well out of its bed and into the surrounding woods. We hoped this would enable us to paddle around blown down trees which lay across the river blocking it for canoeing like a barrier blocking a road.
Also, the weather report said "scattered storms". Brian called me from Jacksonville Sunday morning and said it was raining up a storm. I assured him it wouldn’t last long and would even make the water rise more for us and make our trip easier.
He was already on his way and I told hm to come on. He brought his chain saw and I had my loppers and a bow saw. When we put in, the water level had fallen 4 inches from the afternoon before. It was still very high and looked favorable for our making it down to where the river opens wide into marsh lands and is tidal.
We had clear sailing for a very short while. We then came upon a large tree blocking our passage.
Due to the high water were able to maneuver around it easily without getting out of our canoe.
We soon came to an NCDENR gauge which read 190. Apparently they are monitoring this creek water levels for research purposes.
As we paddled on we hit many more obstructing fallen trees. Some we could go around and some Brian had to attack with his chain saw for us to get through.
We entered swamps where the river channel was hard to follow. Sometimes it made two channels around islands in the swamp. Some times high hard ground with beautiful forests appeared on either shore. The hard wood trees in these swamps were live trees indicating that these waters receded regularly and were not killed by permanent high water.
At noon time we came to the first old dam site. (See pictures). This dam was removed completely for a very wide expanse. So much so we could not see the other end of it. After we got back in our canoe and paddled over there we found it and saw good high ground beyond it.
This explains why Gary Scruggs and I did not see this dam when we came through on our all night run two years ago trying to do what Brian and I are doing today. Had we seen this dam we could have walked out and not spent the night on the river.
This time the dam made an excellent lunch stop for us. Fortunately, the rain stopped for us to have lunch. However, the "scattered storms" became constant rains with scattered periods of lighter rain. One time I said, "Brian the sun is coming out". It turned out to be an a brief opening in the canopy of trees instead. Fortunately for us it was a warm rain.
I walked down the top of the old dam. Huge pine trees have grown up on it. It was very interesting and attractive sight. Makes one wonder about the history of this old dam.
We cleaned out the canoe of all the branches and twigs and bagged the trash we had picked up, which was deliberately discarded off the bridge and bailed out the water and got under way again.
We had a long stretch of open water and quite wide too. Then we began to see grasses and weeds and palmettos and different types of bushes. I told Brian I thought we were approaching the upper reaches of the lake created by a huge beaver dam .This lake has many channels running through it
These channels are narrow areas of flowing water through the weeds and marsh grasses. Some places we had to push our canoe through the tall reeds.
It was obvious the water was flowing right though the reeds and the water was very deep. (This is the area where Gary and I had to use a floating plastic trash bottle that night to tell which way the water was flowing). This is also the area where we have previously visited two large beaver lodges by paddling upstream. We never saw them on this trip.
When we came to Croatan Forest signs on the trees we knew we were on the main channel of the old river as this is the boundary line of Croatan Forest.
We soon heard the noises of rapids and we knew we were approaching the beaver dam. It took us a long while to get there and when we did it was not where the main stream of the river leaves the dam. We had to paddle east to find it.
The water was flowing over the dam the entire length of it. We do not know how long it is but we estimated it is about 1500 feet long. All large trees above it are dead being killed by the constant high water created by the beaver dam. As this is all in Croatan Forest so nobodies’ timber has been destroyed by the beaver dam.
We hope this beaver dam is never removed as this area is beautified by a variety of wild flowers
and large numbers of lovely white water lilies. The dead trees provide an eerie scene and are the
home of many woodpeckers holes. The broken fallen down trees float in the small channels but can be moved to paddle by.
We paddled fast to shoot over and down the beaver dam but our heavy canoe grounded on the dam .We should have taken the time to open a small gap in the top of the dam and we would have had a thrilling ride through the flume it would create.
Brian grabbed the bushes to pull over. I had just told him to watch out for the wild roses that grow on the dam!
We slid on down into the fast flowing waters of Pettiford creek and had clear sailing from then on as the water was very high and we saw no evidence of several smaller beaver dams we know exist.
We soon came to the second old dam site that has been broken through. This is our lunch stop on our usual upstream paddle trips on Pettiford and is our favorite stop on the river.
We got to our take out on private land above Star Hill and were off the water by 3:00. We had to use this private takeout as the newly acquired public land is gated off. This destroys the use of this land for us as a canoe trail.
This is very unfortunate and doubly so as Croatan has barricaded all roads leading to our other public access to this river on the other side. Theses are the areas we cleaned of all trash on both sides of the river.
The purpose of this trip today was to determine if a canoe trail is feasible on Pettiford Creek. Our findings are that this is an excellent creek to make an open canoe trail from Millis Road down.
With such a trail we can paddle down stream instead of having to paddle up stream against the current. The difference is like night an day!
We desperately need for this stream to be made canoeable. Brian and I have done it by day and opened the door. If we plan a few trips like The New River Foundation has done on Cowhorn and the New River we can have another excellent canoe trail here.
Any volunteers? Elmer
(Brian will write up his version of this trip soon.)
Any of you interested in voluntering to help us open a canoe trail here please let us know. The upper reaches are completely bordered by Croatan Forest land on both sides and the new public land now managed by Wildlife borders the south side all the way down to Star Hill. So this upper portion will make an excellent Wilderness Canoe Trail into perpetuity. Elmer
We beat this river!
On Sunday, August 15, 2004, Brian Wheat and Elmer Eddy launched an Old Town 174 into Pettiford Creek in Croatan Forest off Millis Road in Carteret County.
We chose this day to do this as Hurricanes Bonnie and Charley had dropped several days of rain on the water shed. Elmer checked out the water level as being his paddle length, 8 feet, plus one inch Saturday afternoon when the rain stopped. This is the distance from the top edge of the guard rail on the bridge over the creek.
At this level the creek was well out of its bed and into the surrounding woods. We hoped this would enable us to paddle around blown down trees which lay across the river blocking it for canoeing like a barrier blocking a road.
Also, the weather report said "scattered storms". Brian called me from Jacksonville Sunday morning and said it was raining up a storm. I assured him it wouldn’t last long and would even make the water rise more for us and make our trip easier.
He was already on his way and I told hm to come on. He brought his chain saw and I had my loppers and a bow saw. When we put in, the water level had fallen 4 inches from the afternoon before. It was still very high and looked favorable for our making it down to where the river opens wide into marsh lands and is tidal.
We had clear sailing for a very short while. We then came upon a large tree blocking our passage.
Due to the high water were able to maneuver around it easily without getting out of our canoe.
We soon came to an NCDENR gauge which read 190. Apparently they are monitoring this creek water levels for research purposes.
As we paddled on we hit many more obstructing fallen trees. Some we could go around and some Brian had to attack with his chain saw for us to get through.
We entered swamps where the river channel was hard to follow. Sometimes it made two channels around islands in the swamp. Some times high hard ground with beautiful forests appeared on either shore. The hard wood trees in these swamps were live trees indicating that these waters receded regularly and were not killed by permanent high water.
At noon time we came to the first old dam site. (See pictures). This dam was removed completely for a very wide expanse. So much so we could not see the other end of it. After we got back in our canoe and paddled over there we found it and saw good high ground beyond it.
This explains why Gary Scruggs and I did not see this dam when we came through on our all night run two years ago trying to do what Brian and I are doing today. Had we seen this dam we could have walked out and not spent the night on the river.
This time the dam made an excellent lunch stop for us. Fortunately, the rain stopped for us to have lunch. However, the "scattered storms" became constant rains with scattered periods of lighter rain. One time I said, "Brian the sun is coming out". It turned out to be an a brief opening in the canopy of trees instead. Fortunately for us it was a warm rain.
I walked down the top of the old dam. Huge pine trees have grown up on it. It was very interesting and attractive sight. Makes one wonder about the history of this old dam.
We cleaned out the canoe of all the branches and twigs and bagged the trash we had picked up, which was deliberately discarded off the bridge and bailed out the water and got under way again.
We had a long stretch of open water and quite wide too. Then we began to see grasses and weeds and palmettos and different types of bushes. I told Brian I thought we were approaching the upper reaches of the lake created by a huge beaver dam .This lake has many channels running through it
These channels are narrow areas of flowing water through the weeds and marsh grasses. Some places we had to push our canoe through the tall reeds.
It was obvious the water was flowing right though the reeds and the water was very deep. (This is the area where Gary and I had to use a floating plastic trash bottle that night to tell which way the water was flowing). This is also the area where we have previously visited two large beaver lodges by paddling upstream. We never saw them on this trip.
When we came to Croatan Forest signs on the trees we knew we were on the main channel of the old river as this is the boundary line of Croatan Forest.
We soon heard the noises of rapids and we knew we were approaching the beaver dam. It took us a long while to get there and when we did it was not where the main stream of the river leaves the dam. We had to paddle east to find it.
The water was flowing over the dam the entire length of it. We do not know how long it is but we estimated it is about 1500 feet long. All large trees above it are dead being killed by the constant high water created by the beaver dam. As this is all in Croatan Forest so nobodies’ timber has been destroyed by the beaver dam.
We hope this beaver dam is never removed as this area is beautified by a variety of wild flowers
and large numbers of lovely white water lilies. The dead trees provide an eerie scene and are the
home of many woodpeckers holes. The broken fallen down trees float in the small channels but can be moved to paddle by.
We paddled fast to shoot over and down the beaver dam but our heavy canoe grounded on the dam .We should have taken the time to open a small gap in the top of the dam and we would have had a thrilling ride through the flume it would create.
Brian grabbed the bushes to pull over. I had just told him to watch out for the wild roses that grow on the dam!
We slid on down into the fast flowing waters of Pettiford creek and had clear sailing from then on as the water was very high and we saw no evidence of several smaller beaver dams we know exist.
We soon came to the second old dam site that has been broken through. This is our lunch stop on our usual upstream paddle trips on Pettiford and is our favorite stop on the river.
We got to our take out on private land above Star Hill and were off the water by 3:00. We had to use this private takeout as the newly acquired public land is gated off. This destroys the use of this land for us as a canoe trail.
This is very unfortunate and doubly so as Croatan has barricaded all roads leading to our other public access to this river on the other side. Theses are the areas we cleaned of all trash on both sides of the river.
The purpose of this trip today was to determine if a canoe trail is feasible on Pettiford Creek. Our findings are that this is an excellent creek to make an open canoe trail from Millis Road down.
With such a trail we can paddle down stream instead of having to paddle up stream against the current. The difference is like night an day!
We desperately need for this stream to be made canoeable. Brian and I have done it by day and opened the door. If we plan a few trips like The New River Foundation has done on Cowhorn and the New River we can have another excellent canoe trail here.
Any volunteers? Elmer
(Brian will write up his version of this trip soon.)
Any of you interested in voluntering to help us open a canoe trail here please let us know. The upper reaches are completely bordered by Croatan Forest land on both sides and the new public land now managed by Wildlife borders the south side all the way down to Star Hill. So this upper portion will make an excellent Wilderness Canoe Trail into perpetuity. Elmer
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