It is a good morning at the Rt 704 bridge. Will has made arrangement's with the couple in the house in the upper left corner, to park his car in their yard for a few days. When we go to retrieve his car a couple days later, they are concerned we have not survived the cold weather.
It is only the third time I have paddled my brand new Dagger Axis. It has just enough space to load my camping gear. It is really packed tight. My hands are numb before we even shove off. I thought the new gloves I purchased would provide some warmth but my hands feel better with the gloves off.
Today was a series of class one rapids and a few rock gardens. We stopped a couple times for lunch and breaks but spent most of the time on the water. It flowed along at a nice clip so we didn't wear ourselves out paddling.
By mid afternoon we were in the vicinity where Will had planned to camp. He had researched it and found a spot where we would not be within sight of a home. It was rather remote on the river left but a few homes could be spotted on river right once we got out a roamed about. Of course we camped right beside a no trespassing sign. The river's edge was well posted at every conceivable spot to land a boat. We were very careful to leave no trace of our campsite the next morning.
Since we had a few hours of daylight we decided to explore a bit. After walking downriver a short distance we tackled the cliffs rising up from the river. Eventually we found an old road and followed it about a half mile. Along the way we located an old house, now fallen. There was a well beside the house and later we located another well down the hill a bit. We also came upon the grave of Charles E Moore 1813-1894. It might have been his home. Looking back to the second photo in this entry, you'll see Demon Rock. We sat across the river from this rock for about 20 minutes before heading back to camp.
That night we heard several screech owls working their territory.
It was another cold morning, probably just above freezing. We are slow to pack up and finally shove off. The terrain today boasted many more rock cliffs alongside the river. They populated both side of the river.
We paddled by quite a few fish camps and seasonal homes. As we approached Hanging Rock State Park, the cliffs became more dramatic and the houses thinned. We finally saw one fine home perched high above the river on river left, complete with a well engineered deck jutting out from the clifftop.
We paddled through the small section of the state park which is on both sides of the river. Directly after this is the Dan River Company, a river outfitter with a few cabins riverside. We then passed through some pastoral land before arriving at Moratock Park in the town Danbury. There is a landing spot on river left where the park is but we chose a spot directly under the road bridge on river right. Here it was about a 3 minute walk to the Danbury General Store and some hot lunch. As we sat eating, many bicyclists whizzed by.
After lunch we had a short paddle of perhaps 7 miles to go. The river is a bit tamer here with some class one rapids and some shallow spots. We passed under 7 Island Bridge. The bridge is in terrible condition. Although it still serves traffic, some of the pillars have rebar completely exposed amid crumbing concrete from river level to bridge bed.
I'm pretty tired by the time we pass Mt Horrible. Don't you love the names of the rock formations? Shortly we pull off on river left and find a suitable spot for another night out.
This afternoon, Will leads a walk to a rock cliff downriver which has a sizable cave it in. The scene below is just in front of the cave. It is reportedly the former hideout of some Confederate deserters from the area. They hid here for a short while at the end of the war. It looks like you could make a home of it under those circumstances. Great view too.
I have no pictures of our last day on the river. It was sleeting and freezing rain. We just paddled hard for the short way to our takeout at the Hemlock Golf Course. It was Sunday morning but there wasn't a soul on the course.
No comments:
Post a Comment