Friday, February 04, 2005
Paddling The New Port River, February 2, 2005
Paddling Feb 2, 2005, Newport River
For the first time we were able to paddle this river with out getting out of our boats to climb over, or portage around, or squeeze under blown down trees blocking the river.
This is due to the foresight of Carteret County Commissioners who obtained a Grant as I understand it to open the river to paddling. It is now open and should attract paddlers in this fast growing sport from all over.
Good for Tourism and good for us to enjoy as a new paddle trail .
They stopped at Nine Mile Road. The river is still blocked upstream and could be made into an extended paddle trail up into Croatan Forest and perhaps even the lakes. A real wilderness paddle!
Perhaps another access point to get our boats into the rive r could be found up there too.
At current water level it is now canoeable from Nine Mile Road to the Wildlife Ramp on Old 70 in Newport. We estimate the distance to be about 7 miles as there are a great many twists and turns. At one time we saw those ahead of us going in the exact opposite direction through the trees.
We left Nine Mile Bridge around 12:00 and arrived at The Wildlife Ramp around 3:30. Or course, we picked up three bags of trash as we paddled. A straight through paddle would take less time.
It is a beautiful river with forested banks most all the way. There were large high dirt mounds along the north bank especially. These were covered with full grown trees. We suspect that these are man made mounds made of soil dredged out of the river by mule scoops. We think this was done at shallow areas to allow cypress logs to be floated down the river.
One large cypress right in the middle of the river in the picture is probably one of the smaller ones that existed here. Sure would have loved to see the river then. We need to do more planting of cypress trees along our rivers. Croatan Forest lands border a good portion of this section of the river.
Thanks Carteret County for opening this wonderful new Paddle Trail. We appreciate it very much and will do our best to keep it clean.
Gary Scruggs, The Newport River Trashman, points out that the trash getting in this river comes from The Nine Mile Road Bridge and two or three bridges on the Nine Foot Road including the bridge over The North Prong of the Newport River and again where it goes under Lake Road.
This is typical of the trashing of all our rivers. People are discarding their trash off bridges! Please stop it!
Large cypress in middle of river.
Paddling down the river.
Lunch stop, left to right: Bill Murray, Joanne Somerday, Brian Leavy, Dale Weston, Bob Wendel
For the first time we were able to paddle this river with out getting out of our boats to climb over, or portage around, or squeeze under blown down trees blocking the river.
This is due to the foresight of Carteret County Commissioners who obtained a Grant as I understand it to open the river to paddling. It is now open and should attract paddlers in this fast growing sport from all over.
Good for Tourism and good for us to enjoy as a new paddle trail .
They stopped at Nine Mile Road. The river is still blocked upstream and could be made into an extended paddle trail up into Croatan Forest and perhaps even the lakes. A real wilderness paddle!
Perhaps another access point to get our boats into the rive r could be found up there too.
At current water level it is now canoeable from Nine Mile Road to the Wildlife Ramp on Old 70 in Newport. We estimate the distance to be about 7 miles as there are a great many twists and turns. At one time we saw those ahead of us going in the exact opposite direction through the trees.
We left Nine Mile Bridge around 12:00 and arrived at The Wildlife Ramp around 3:30. Or course, we picked up three bags of trash as we paddled. A straight through paddle would take less time.
It is a beautiful river with forested banks most all the way. There were large high dirt mounds along the north bank especially. These were covered with full grown trees. We suspect that these are man made mounds made of soil dredged out of the river by mule scoops. We think this was done at shallow areas to allow cypress logs to be floated down the river.
One large cypress right in the middle of the river in the picture is probably one of the smaller ones that existed here. Sure would have loved to see the river then. We need to do more planting of cypress trees along our rivers. Croatan Forest lands border a good portion of this section of the river.
Thanks Carteret County for opening this wonderful new Paddle Trail. We appreciate it very much and will do our best to keep it clean.
Gary Scruggs, The Newport River Trashman, points out that the trash getting in this river comes from The Nine Mile Road Bridge and two or three bridges on the Nine Foot Road including the bridge over The North Prong of the Newport River and again where it goes under Lake Road.
This is typical of the trashing of all our rivers. People are discarding their trash off bridges! Please stop it!
Large cypress in middle of river.
Paddling down the river.
Lunch stop, left to right: Bill Murray, Joanne Somerday, Brian Leavy, Dale Weston, Bob Wendel
Monday, January 31, 2005
Paddling Feb 2, 2005, Newport River, Nine Mile Road to Old Rte. 70
More good news. A new paddle trail has been opened up for us by Carteret County. Thank you Commissioners!
Just talked to Todd Kelly who is doing the removal of blown down trees. He will be through by Wednesday and may join us by riding up front with me.
We will meet at 11:30 at Nine Foot Road and unload our boats. Do not park here. Park back at corner of Roberts Road. We will take cars to our take out at The Wildlife Ramp on Old 70 in Newport. This is right near the other end of Roberts Road. Four hours should complete the trip.
This is club meeting night at 7:00. This is the reason for the late start to reduce the time between getting off the river and the going to the meeting. Brian suggests all getting together for dinner.
The temperature is to be 54 and light north winds should not bother us in the dense woods along this river. Marie and Gary and Matt climbed over all these trees and then turned around and did it again going back downstream. Marie is recovering nicely from her knee replacement. Gary goes in on February 10th for his right knee. No connection for having climbed over all those blown down trees twice together. Elmer
Just talked to Todd Kelly who is doing the removal of blown down trees. He will be through by Wednesday and may join us by riding up front with me.
We will meet at 11:30 at Nine Foot Road and unload our boats. Do not park here. Park back at corner of Roberts Road. We will take cars to our take out at The Wildlife Ramp on Old 70 in Newport. This is right near the other end of Roberts Road. Four hours should complete the trip.
This is club meeting night at 7:00. This is the reason for the late start to reduce the time between getting off the river and the going to the meeting. Brian suggests all getting together for dinner.
The temperature is to be 54 and light north winds should not bother us in the dense woods along this river. Marie and Gary and Matt climbed over all these trees and then turned around and did it again going back downstream. Marie is recovering nicely from her knee replacement. Gary goes in on February 10th for his right knee. No connection for having climbed over all those blown down trees twice together. Elmer
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