Paddle Day 2011

Roanoke River Paddle Days 2011

Put In - Canoe launch in Williamston, NC; located in Moratoc Park. The drive from Raleigh is 1 hour 40 minutes and is a straight shot down Interstate 64. Looks like stimulus money did a lot of repaving in this area, the roads were really nice. Speed limit was 70 miles an hour on most.
Distance/Time - 13.4 miles/4 hours
Difficulty - Average, requires being aware of moving water. No easy rest areas other than the Conine Camping Platform.
Trip Directions - This was the 2011 Paddle Days on the Roanoke River. It is very well run and a lot of fun. The brunswick stew was really good at the closing lunch. A band played also during lunch. They provided trail mix and apples at the put-in also. Around 75 people were on the river. The trip requires no bus shuttling as the route is a large counter-clockwise circle, using the Conine Cut. The Conine Cut is paddling up river and the actual Roanoke River is down river. So, the down river paddling is a lot faster, averaged 4.6 MPH in this section. Here is the map they give you for the trip. I paddled with a group of four and we were the first back to the park. One of the paddlers was the CEO of Hatteras Hammocks and he had very interesting stories about the advent of the internet and selling hammocks. I learned what a 'Page Click' or 'Organic Click' was. One other person had their dog with them and it was quite large for kayaking, but the dog did very well.
Scenery - Not much wildlife on the trip to start. It was a chilly overcast day. Did see two interesting wildlife events, first a duckling paddled out in front of us and right then a barred owl came swooping in for the kill, the duck took off but it look like a goner as it flew up stream, the owl was on its tail. The second was a large buzzard that tried to land on a large dead branch in a tree and it broke just as it landed. Would have been painful being under this one. The buzzard recovered right quickly, however.
Hazards - Moving water.