Under a Southern Moon

We have just returned from a stunning full moon paddle on Juniper Lake. We are at Cheraw State Park just outside Cheraw, SC.

I am a member (treasurer, in fact) of the Central Carolina Paddlers out of Sanford, NC. We are a club of about 25 members. This weekend is the annual camp out, the first I have been able to attend. My long time friend, Caroline joined me this weekend for her first paddle experience. It could not have been nicer.

Breakfast!

Cheraw State Park is a creation of the CCC, one of Roosevelt's "alphabet soup" programs that created many of our state and national parks. It is an exceptionally lovely place and important habitat for endangered plants and birds. Our campground is at the edge of Juniper Lake, a body of water about 2.5 miles long ending in an extensive cypress swamp.

We arrived before supper on Friday evening. My tiny rig managed to nab the only pull through campsite while large rigs around me were backing into wooded spaces. We have a great view of the lake AND we are right next to the bath house. Someone is smiling on us for sure. Most club members were staying in cabins across the lake and we arrived just in time to join them for a great hot dog cookout at cabin 7. The rest of the group hit the lake about 8p for the full Harvest Moon. Caroline wisely decided her first kayak experience should be in broad daylight so two happy campers hit the hay.

The next morning we were on the water at 9a. For Caroline's first trip, the setting was pretty spectacular. The morning was overcast and breezy. We paddled the length of the lake and then meandered among the cypress knees. Caroline is a soil scientist who has studied forestry and landscape architecture. She was the soil conservation agent for Chatham County (back when there was such a thing) and my first weaving student in the yarn store I opened in Pittsboro back in the mid 1980s. She currently works as a land management consultant and lives near her family farm in Rutherfordton. It was a treat to have her along as she was quick to identify native plants and animals. We saw herons and pitcher plants and water lilies in bloom.

While we didn't see any ospreys, apparently they are abundant here. It was pretty amazing to see a marker explaining their habits and habitat nailed to a tree smack in the middle of the lake. The endangered Red Cockaded Woodpecker and some 200 other species of birds reside here as well.

In the afternoon (after a generous nap) we drove into Historic Cheraw to explore "the prettiest town in the South". As if the gracious homes, beautifully renovated churches and buildings were not enough, Cheraw is the birthplace of the great Dizzy Gillespie. We visited the park at his
homeplace, found his statue downtown on the town green, and visited with a delightful gift shop proprietress who lives in the former town library--a gracious old home that served Sherman's troops. Apparently, the Yanks fell into some hidden wine and had a munitions accident that leveled much of the old down town, but the restoration of what is left is well worth the visit. And the annual jazz festival in honor of Gillespie sounds like a must-attend.

This evening at 8p, Caroline joined the club for her first night time paddle. The moon was an hour later this evening, but it made a spectacular entrance through the clouds and reflected in the glassy water. It was well worth the wait. Truly a moment of peace on Earth.

The entire weekend has been so special. And the best part of all of it is that Cheraw is only 1.5 hours from home. We will be back.

Dan River Adventure

I have known Cathy since I was pregnant with Jessie--over 25 years. She is a world traveler and far more intrepid than my timid self. But we do enjoy kayaking together and for my 60th birthday, she booked a sweet little cabin for us near Lake Tillery where we hiked and paddled and contemplated the next decade.

Now it was my turn to treat her to a special trip and on August 26 weekend, I did.

Twice now I have paddled sections of the Dan River with my son, Ben. The scenery is spectacular. The first time we went, Jacob from the Haw River Canoe and Kayak company, a dear friend, offered to go with us. I have this thing about wanting to do a new stretch of river for the first time with someone more experienced and Jacob's offer could not have made me happier. Jacob is seriously whitewater so I figured he'd be bored to tears and took his offer as a gracious favor for this old lady. Instead, as we traversed an almost continuous slew of Class 1 rapids, he noted that we were seeing Class 4 scenery on a Class 1 river and was duly impressed. The river passes by enormous cliffs. Apparently, it is these huge cliffs that typically break off the create the challenging Class 4 rapids. In this case, we got the great cliffs without the treacherous rapids.

I had so much fun on that trip, Ben and I went back this spring and did another section of the Dan that was familiar to him through his work at the Betsy Jeff Penn Environmental Education Center. I guess Cathy heard me talk so much about the Dan that when I offered to take her away for a weekend in LibraryAnn, she chose a trip to paddle the Dan.

I don't have a waterproof camera yet. The image on the right is courtesy of the Danbury General Store--a shout out to the owner who rescued us on our second Dan River trip when Ben locked his keys in my truck back at the put in and couldn't drive us home from the take out. Please buy your chips and drinks from her--she never let us pay her.  The image of the cliffs below is from the NC River Paddler Blog (I promise to get a GoPro soon...) and gives just a glimpse of the sights to be seen.

So despite the wicked heat, Cathy and I had a grand time. The trip we took was courtesy of the Dan River Company which has a private put in upstream of the most scenic stretch. The water level was perfect, the riffles were enough of a challenge to be interesting without being scary. And the air was cool on the river.

We were on the river about three hours. We took ourselves to historic Bib's BBQ in Winston-Salem for a late lunch then walked the art district until heat and rain sent us home.

Our home base was the Dan River Campground, 45 minutes away in Stoneville, NC. Apparently they have their own river adventures to offer. I was intent on showing Cathy the section of river I had enjoyed so much but couldn't find a closer place to camp (Hanging Rock State Park campground is lovely but was fully booked for this weekend). The Dan River Campground in Stoneville was very nice and I think it would be fun to go back and try their section of the river the next time. Always looking for a good excuse...