Staunton River

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Kerr Lake - Staunton River Trip

Put In - From Raleigh, Staunton River State Park (Campsite 19) is a 2 hour drive basically up 501 from Durham to South Boston. Best to Google Map it as no bridges cross the Dan or Staunton River to let you get there faster, so you have to go into South Boston and then head east straight in. The park is the oldest park in the Virginia State Park System. It is very well maintained and has a pool, cabins, shelters, boat ramps, and lots of hiking trails. The restroom/shower house is heated. Virginia parks won the best state parks in the nation and you can see why. Again they cater to RV folks, so you will not find many tent sites. But since this was in October, it was free picking. The campsites are not on the water, so you have to drive to the boat ramps. There are two, one on the Staunton River and one on the Dan River. I decided to stay on the Staunton side this trip and do the Dan on the next trip. The Staunton boat ramp was closed for real boats, but worked find for kayaks. Did have to drag the kayak from the boat ramp proper about 10 yards to the water.
Distance/Time - 3 trips, trip 1 up Un-named Creek, 7.4 miles, 2nd trip - 2.9 miles at night, and 3rd a morning trip to Hogan Creek - 4.9 miles.
Difficulty - Above Average, because of the low water areas.
Trip Directions - This ended up being a very strange set of trips. I basically wanted to paddle up the Staunton River, but both trips got side tracked to a creek with no outlet to the river, even though the GPS map showed a path. Ended up the water was to low to have those cut overs. So, I basically just paddled all around the area and it ended up being a nice easy set of paddles in picture perfect weather. Egrets everywhere because of the low water and marsh like conditions. Saw a bald eagle and one turtle.
Hazards - Low water areas.