Stewards of the White Oak River Basin Current Events

Bogue Sound Paddle, Wednesday, Dec 8, 2004 (via bcc to all).

65 degrees and sunny to partly cloudy is the long range forecast. Excellent paddling weather.

We will meet at Island Harbor Marina at 9:00. For out of towners, you can join us at 10:00 as we will paddle west to bridge and back.

When you come off the bridge to Emerald Isle on Rte 58 go to third stop light and turn left. This is at CVS Pharmacy. Go past car wash and bear left on Old Ferry Road to the Marina. Enter through the arches and bear left to the sandy beach west of the marina itself.

The marina is at about mile 20. Our take out will be at about mile 15 at Park Road. This is shown on CCCKC Map, Western Carteret County by a kayak access symbol. We plan to be off the water at 3:00

We will explore every canal and creek including Archers Canal and Creek. We will, of course, pick up all litter and trash but we anticipate very little in this area.

All in all, it should be a very interesting and enjoyable exploration and fun paddle. Elmer

phone cell 910-389-4588--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2004, road pick up and paddle.

This e-mail is being sent seperately to IWLA, Stewards of The White Oak River Basin, Coastal Carolina Kayakers, and NCDOT.

Twelve of us showed up at the T&W restaurant on Rte 58 and picked up State Roads 1l06 and 1109 which are Peletier Loop Road and Firetower Road and West Firetower Road. We split up in pairs and played leap-frog down the roads attacking from either end. We were off the roads and back at the T&W by 10:00.

We left the roads clean and four of us Paddled Pettiford Creek until 3:00.We left Pettiford Creek clean too. We removed two balls, a plastic chair and ghost crab pot and the usual scattered bottles and cans and pails and plastics. Oh yes, we came upon a whole deer in the river marshes. A four point buck. Apparently he had been shot and ran off to die unfound by the hunter who shot him.

We got two bags of trash off the river and a pick up truck full off the roads. See picture. That is Tom Riggs on the left with NCDOT. He came along behind us and picked our bags. The picture shows the truck full of bags behind the group. Other pics are on the web site. They are of the deer, and a gorgeous pyracantha, and live oaks hanging over the water on a sandy beach. It was a lovely day, perfect for paddling.

For our next NCDOT pickup for IWLA we will choose other roads in the Stella area. We hope to find a sponsor who will pay the postage to contact all residents in the area too so we can invite the local residents to join us in the hope that we can thus stop littering of those roads by enlisting them in Adopt-A-Highway Program. "If no one litters there will be no litter".

Our paddle will probably be from the Stella Bridge down to The White Oak Bluffs Subdivision on Hadnot Creek.

Thanks to all who participated. It was a most successful day. Elmer.

This e-mail is being sent to members of The Stewards of The White Oak River Basin, The Izaak Walton League of America, White Oak River Chapter and Coastal Carolina Kayakers by blind carbon copy so as to avoid the long print out of names and adresses.

We meet at 8:30 at the T&W Restaurant on Route 58. We join with The Izaak Walton League to pick up Peletier Loop Road, Fire Tower Road and West Fire Tower Road. These are State Roads being #s 1106 and 1109 making a loop from the Water Tower in Peletier back to Rte 58 south of the T & W. We will pick in the "wild"areas only, not in front of residences.

You paddlers coming in from out of town can join us along the roads. We will paddle Pettiford Creek and Starkey Creek as soon as we have finished up on the roads.

We will put in on the water at the foot of Pettiford Road which is south of the Water Tank and take out there too.

The weather is predicted to be 63 degrees and the rain is not to arrive until after midnight. We should be off the river by 3:00.

Everything is falling into place for a successful clean up. "Don't Litter" signs have been installed along the roads. The Peletier General Store at the Water Tank is handing out flyers for the local people. The Tideland News wrote it up on their editoral page on Nov. 30th, "Tuesday is Clean Up Day". The Carteret News Times is also running an article this weekend. Ben Ball has announced it on the radio.

We have invited the local residents in the area to help us and to sign up with NCDOT in their Adopt-A-Highway Program. We will help them to do this. The local residents are the only ones who can keep these roads clean and free of all litter. "If no one litters there will be no litter". What is discarded on these roads is washed into the White Oak River.

Yours to Keep America Beautiful, especially our very own White Oak River.

The picture shows John Davis, my grandson, Sam Eddy, Marcia Leavy and Elmer Eddy. We were representing Crystal Coast Canoe & Kayak Club and were entrants 29 and 30 out of total ot 70.

We blew our horn as we inched along and shouted "Dont Litter" and "We want clean waters".

The crowds responded waving and clapping their hands and giving us thumbs up and many shouted back they don't litter.

It was a happy, joyful occasion.