Stewards of the White Oak River Basin Current Events

Beautiful purple flower

Blue berries. They were good.
Pretty yellow flower
Orange flower
Lovely fern
Took some home to Florence
Trash. It has been here for over a year!
More
More of the same.
This piece looks like it has been here forever.
More pretty purple flowers.
Exquisite thistle blossum.
This is the trash I picked along the trail. In addition to this litter, you can see how our lovely Croatan National Forest is being used as a dumping ground. We hope to correct this by creating Caravans for Croatan to remove it. Volunteers with pick up trucks are welcome to restore our Forest to its natural state.

This day we paddled from Emmetts Lane Bridge up the White Oak past the Big Cypress to the confluence of the North and South Prongs. This was a real adventure into unknown waters.

The picture, #1485 is of Dale Weston at the confluence. As you can see there is plenty of water but it is filled with old moss covered logs. One had little white eggs in the crevices. We ate lunch here and a little striped lizard took up with Dale's blue tee shirt and explored it thoroughly for our entertainment.

The weather was excellent the water was cool. The White Oak was more beautiful than ever. There were no snakes or bugs or deer flies (Gary). We had a real adventure cutting our way through to get here. #1479 shows a new blow down on the way up to the Big Cypress with Dave, Julia and Missy getting around it.

#1487, the group, Julia Miner and Missy Tenhet from Oriental, Dave McCracken from New Bern and Dale Weston from Jacksonville. Everyone wants to make a return trip to continue our exploration up stream. They want some more chain saws along. Any volunteers?

There is plenty of water. Mike's gauge at Rte 17 read minus 8 inches. The measurement from the bottom of the concrete bridge at Emmetts was 50 inches. With a little less water we could do a better job of clearing a canoe trail clear of obstructions.

Next week we turn back east. We will do the Thorough Fare, "thurfur" if it is not too windy. (See new CCCKC map). Al Morris will let us know. If too windy we will return to Cahoogue Creek and Hancock Creek and explore them both. --------------------------------------------------------------

Dale and Dave confronting an old mossy obstructing log which Dale cut through and opened a passageway.
At the confluence of the North and South Prongs of the White Oak River never before seen by anyone present today. The water is still deep and we can paddle upstream on both Prongs if we can cut our way through the fallen trees blocking the way. Any volunteers? Who knows what we may find?
Dale and Elmer at confluence.
Missy heading into the unknown!
The intrepid explorers with me this time.
The intrepid explorers with Dave.
Dave, Julia and Missy getting around a new blown down tree on the way up to the Big Cypress Trees. We will get it out of there on our next trip. Our adveture was very enjoyable and productive and we can't wait to get back up there to see what is around the next bend.

2005-07-01, New River from Rte 24 above Richlands to Rte 24 below Richlands.

This is the six foot high beaver dam we encountered. It was awesome looking down from the top. That large blowndown tree across the top of the dam did not help any except the beavers. That is my canoe on the left and it is about six feet down to that foaming white water on the right below the dam.

That is Marie Justen being let down the dam by Don Sykes with a rope like he let me down. Marie says she closed her eyes! Who is going to let Don down? As view of the dam from below.
Marie Justen and Don Sykes at the take out with our haul of trash for the day. We had to leave a ten foot neon light and a 90 gallon trash bin on wheels like the ones they provide for house pick up and several tires. All this stuff is heading for Jacksonville and will get there with successive periods of flood waters.

We must find a way to stop people from throwing their trash off bridges. The New River Foundation and Keep Onlsow Beautiful, through Big Sweep this fall will be picking up this Richland's area trash as they have been year in and year out. Our leaders need to do something to stop this horrible dumping in our rivers!

Here is Don scoming down the dam like lightning. Don and Marie at the chrch with the trash. Elmer