Every November for almost 25 years Dorcas and I have done a November canoe camping trip, usually on an eastern blackwater river, with our friends and favorite paddling buddies, Wayne and Lynda. Way back when, when we were working, we did a 2-3 night trip over Thanksgiving weekend. After retirement and since Dorcas and I started migrating to Florida, we have been doing the trip a week or two before Thanksgiving.
 |
Our put-in at Turnpike Road
|
This year we put in on Drowning Creek, the headwaters to the Lumber River on Friday, November 6 for a 3-night camper. We met Wayne and Lynda at 9:00 at the Turnpike Road bridge, just south of Aberdeen. The weather forecast was perfect with highs in the 70s lows in the 50s, sunny and clear. Fine fall camping weather. The river level was perfect, reading about 9.5 feet on the Lumberton gage.
 |
Lynda does a fine draw
|
We spent our first night at the canoe-in campsite at Chalk Banks, a unit of Lumber River State Park. The site was equipped with a fire ring, 2 picnic tables and a trash can. These are not luxuries normally found when camping on rivers.
 |
Our camp site at Chalk Banks
|
 |
A camp fire on the river is always special
|
We had several duck-unders.
 |
Low bridge!
|
We also had 2 blowdowns that we portaged, both on river right. Once upon a time, we would have jumped up on the logs and dragged the boats over and not portaged. Piece of cake! But that was then, and this is now. Our bodies no longer will do what they once could do. Balancing on a slippery log in a November river, and dragging a boat and gear and dog weighing perhaps 700 lbs is no longer an option.
We spent the 2nd night at Jasper Memory Canoe-in Campsite, another unit of Lumber River State Park. Jasper Memory also had a fire ring, but only one picnic table and no trash can. There used to be a trash can here, but for some reason it is now gone.
 |
Everybody was plum tuckered at Jasper Memory camp
|
The take-out at Jasper Memory sucked. It was very steep, there was no good way to get in and out of the boat, and it was hard to drag the boat and gear up onto the bank. The following picture was just before putting in on our 3rd day. I had commented to Dorcas that it looked a bit like the Titanic. This was a very unfortunate and foreboding mistake. When a canoe is launched at a steep angle to the water, the end tends to dive into the water because there is little volume and buoyancy at the ends. When the boat is loaded with 4 tons of camping gear the problem is exacerbated. When there is also a lard-ass stern paddler sitting in the low end of the boat it is catastrophic. While putting in we moved the boat into the water as far as possible and I got into the stern. At that point the bow was pointing towards the sky at a 45 degree angle. Dorcas pushed me in the rest of the way and then screamed that water was coming in the back of the boat. She didn't need to scream, I knew it right away. Immediately water was up to my hips and the green box floated out of the boat. Within about 3 seconds the water was up to my ears, and the cooler, chairs, tent and the large dry bag floated out of the boat. Finally I floated out of the boat. In short order we recovered all the gear and emptied the water from the boat. Matilda was embarrassed. She ran away and and hid in the woods. I was embarrassed too. It was a rookie mistake, and I knew better. I was wet, but it was not cold, and it is rare to get a good bath on a river camping trip. In short order we had the boat reloaded and were on our way.
There were no more state park campsites along our course before our take-out. We spent the 3rd night at a primitive site on river left after about 8 miles of paddling.
We took out on Monday at Old Red Springs Road after 3 nights and 28 miles on the river. Neither our put-in or our take-out was a particularly safe place to leave a car for 4 days, so we were happy to find both vehicles safe and sound, with all windows intact, and tires full. The weather was great, and it was a wonderful paddle.
Life is always good on the river.
