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Canoeing North Carolina's Toe River
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| North Toe River, North Carolina |
North Toe River, western North Carolina 27 March 2009 5 miles,
3 hours 55F and rainOlivia and Stephen, with our guide, Terry, in separate kayak
We managed to get our canoe
sideways and hung up on a huge rock that jutted up out of the river...
Olivia and I wanted to expand our mountain climbing experience,
so the day after summiting four peaks in the Black Mountains near Burnsville, North Carolina, we hitched up with Rivers Edge
Outfitters and spent the afternoon canoeing down the North Toe River.
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| Olivia took the front seat of the canoe |
Handling a canoe is easy if you don't mind tipping
over. But navigating a river properly, choosing the correct route through rapids and keeping your bow pointed downstream are
not as simple as you might think. So we were glad to have Terry, our Rivers Edge guide, go along with us in his own kayak
to keep us out of trouble and make sure we didn't dump ourselves and all of our belongings overboard.
The trip started just a few miles outside of Spruce
Pine, where Olivia and I spent the better part of an hour paddling around in a quiet section of the North Toe River so we
could get accustomed to how to handle our canoe. Once Terry was convinced that we wouldn't drown ourselves in the first
rapid, he led us downstream and into a really scenic area of the river well away from any civilization.
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| Even in the rain, North Toe River was beautiful |
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| Stephen hangs over the edge of the suspension bridge 40 feet above the water. |
Sure enough, on the second set of rapids, we managed
to get our canoe sideways and hung up on a big rock that jutted up out of the river. By some miracle we didn't tip over,
and Terry paddled back to us to coach us out of our predicament. And when I refer to "rapids," you should be aware
that everything here was Class 1 or Class 2... in other words, the simple stuff that experienced whitewater folks scoff at.
But even this challenged our meager maritime skills.
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| This suspension bridge crosses the river as an emergency evacuation route in case of flooding. |
After another near disaster in which we got sideways
through the rapids again, we started to figure out how to point our canoe in the right direction and the rapids became a little
more enjoyable and a lot less spooky. After our first mile, Olivia and I looked forward to the rushing areas of the river
and managed to keep ourselves afloat and headed downstream, just like old hands.
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| "I look hot in my rain pants!" - Olivia |
Terry told us that there would be two portages
- that is, rapids that were beyond our experience level and would require dragging the boat ashore, past the obstacles, and
putting it back into the river on the other side of the danger area. We actually made it through one potential hazard and
only had to portage one time, when the rapids were clearly beyond our novice skill level.
For the last two miles of the trip the rain
began pouring down on us and despite our rain gear, we got pretty well soaked. But by this time we had given up on staying
dry anyway so we just enjoyed the river and didn't worry about it. When we finally reached our ending point we pulled
our canoes up on the river bank and saw a huge suspension bridge overhead. Since our shuttle service would take another fifteen
minutes to pick us up, Olivia and I decided to walk the bridge and take some fun pictures.
We both definitely enjoyed the experience
and want to go canoeing again. However, the best way to go is to do it in warmer weather and in swimwear, and just count on
getting wet. Our first river adventure was great fun and a good preparatory step toward being able to tackle bigger rapids
in either a canoe or a kayak next time.
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