Blackwater Paddle 4/6/11

Blackwater River Paddle

April 6, 2011

Yes, we did it! It wasn’t on Tuesday, but the Tuesday Group opts for Sunshine and Cooler Weather over High Temps and Strong Winds & Rain that was forecast for Tuesday. I skipped the Emails and went back to the old way of talking to the group. I started dialing the phone and talked to each person that had signed-up. Out of the 17, all but two could switch from Tuesday to Wednesday, and like true Tuesday Groupers, the two said for us to go for it and have a nice paddle on Wednesday. I let them know I was sorry about them not being able to come with us and told them that we would be doing another paddle soon.

We were to meet at 9:00 A.M. there at The Blackwater River and even with the long distance and the traffic jams, Bob H. drove into the parking lot at 9:00 A.M. and we were once again, The Tuesday Group. The plan was to take all the vehicles and drivers to the take-out, which was about 10 miles by the roads, and then carpool back to the put-in. After everyone put their gear in their boat we lined-up the vehicles and follow Milton the 10 miles to the take-out. This took about 45 minutes and now we were back with our boats and everyone was in the water to start our trip down the river.

This trip we had Margaret, Jane, Julie, Natalie, and for once we had more men than women, with Richard, Mark, Bill R, Bill B, Bob H, Bob A, Bob M, Milton, Brian, Lou, and Bruce. Natalie and Lou are, our visitors from Pennsylvania, which have been staying at Sandbridge for over 6 months and have fallen in love with our Tuesday group, Biking, Hiking, Paddling and Volunteering at False Cape with us for the last two months. They have already talked about coming back to be with us next year. We hope!

As we paddled under the Steel Bridge there at Blackwater Rd., just south of the put-in, the wind pick-up a little, but with the current flowing with us the paddling was easy. The first thing we saw was an old abandon bus on the east side of the river, used for weekend get-a-ways back a few years ago. At this point on the river the banks were high and you could see where the strong waters flowing down the river had removed a lot of earth and the banks had fallen into the river. Here the group paddled on, some faster than others and we spread out over a half mile. One of the farmers with land along the banks of the river had installed some irrigations pipes and would pump water from the river to his fields to help keep his crops from dying. After our first three miles we reached the second bridge, there at Burdette Road and here we took our first break and most took the time to get out and stretch their legs. By now it was close to PB&J time so we decided to break for lunch along the banks of the river. Milton found a good spot for all to come ashore and we pulled onto the beach and had our lunch. Before leaving Margaret had baked brownies for all and I passed them around and before we pull away, they were all gone. For a little excitement Bob A. paddles across the river to a fallen tree that was about 10 ft from the water and he showed us how much of an acrobat he is, by walking across this log twice. Lunch over, time to move on. Here in this area the river has a lot of turns, and we spread out once again. As we passed the bobbing log that Bill R. discovered on the side of the river, we all looked at it and wondered why? Somehow the current was lifting one end of this fallen tree up and down in the water, Margaret said it looked like a whale. Finally we came to the first of three log jams that crossed the river, trying to keep our boats from reaching the take-out. While waiting for everyone to catch up we found an 18 ft motor boat, minus the motor, that had washed down the river years before and was dying a slow death, there on the bank. With everyone there, we started through the log jam and we all made it by pushing down the logs as we paddled over. This we did twice more and finally after the next 5 miles we reached Joyner Bridge and the take out. We all helped each other load the boats and Jane drove the three shuttle drivers back to the parking lot to pick-up our trucks. We drove the 10 miles back to where the others waited and here we loaded the last 3 boats and then drove to The Dairy Queen and had, you guess it, ice cream. It was another great, enjoyable, safe Tuesday outing. Can’t wait to do it again! Thanks to all for another great Tuesday/Wednesday day! Bruce Julian

View Bill Billing's photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/b.billings/Tuesday110406TuesdayBlackwaterRiverPaddle?authkey=Gv1sRgCPTO4aHy8OlS&feat=email