Nov 9 Black River

Paddling buddy Will, came up with the plans for this float on the Black River in eastern North Carolina. After a bit of confusion about where the put in was, we managed to find a suitable boat ramp in the community of Ivanhoe. It cut a number of miles off our planned route but under the circumstances was the best choice. The river is shallow. We wonder how much time we're going to spend dragging them. The water is also a red tea color. I'm told this is due to the tannin in the bark of cypress trees which dominate this area.

The coastal plain of North Carolina was an ocean not long ago and thus there is lots of sand. The river bottom was nothing but sand. We saw numerous sandbars. Where the banks of the river rose, it was sand. As mentioned, the tree of choice here is cypress. They need to be either in or very close to water level. These are Bald Cypress and are conifers but lose their leaves every year. The trees are accompanied by cypress knees which appear on the ground or in the water wherever trees are. Most knees we see are small between one and two feet in height. Once on dry ground in a cypress swamp it looks impossible to pitch a tent due to knees being everywhere. The purpose of the knee is not known. There are some hypotheses. Our hypothesis is the knee serves as a counterbalance for the tree. Since Cypress are located in and near water, the ground they are anchored in is not as substantial as typical dry ground. The trees likely require some additional support. Another hypothesis is knees help bring oxygen to the extensive root system. Either way the knees are interesting and add an exotic nature to a cypress swamp. 

Due to our abbreviated day, we set camp early. I placed my tent on a sandbar which worked out nicely. Once camp was set, we took a small paddling adventure up the South River whose confluence with the Black was nearby. It narrowed after a short distance. Will proceeded on up while I just floated.

That evening we heard the eerie howls of coyotes nearby. There were also some Barred Owls trying to locate one another. The other strange night noise was a tremendous splash in the river. We heard it several times, waking me at one point. We later suspected these were beavers splashing the water as a signal to others.