Kayaking the New River.

On the last day of our short vacation to Stony Fork Recreation Area Carole and I took a kayaking trip down the New River. The New River is, ironically, one of the oldest rivers on Earth. It's also unique in that it flows north. Most of the rivers familiar to us flow to the south. But good ol' New River starts in NC, flows through Virginia, and then into West Virginia where it gets a lot more rough and offers some nice whitewater rapids.

We have done a fair amount of kayaking on the New River. And, except for some stretches we've rafted in West Virginia, it's a pretty tame river. We generally have to paddle a lot since there are long stretches of flatwater that don't seem to move much. This trip was pretty much that way, and we encountered only a couple of riffles and a single Class II rapid which was a little fun.

We didn't carry our kayaks with us. Carole and I have been debating on what we want to have in a tandem kayak and so we have been trying out various models. On this trip we used a sit-on-top kayak and we preferred it (slightly) to the traditional kayak style. So we'll likely end up getting one of those.

This is the way we'll probably tend to do the seating. Carole in front, me in back.

We passed several big cliffs like this one.

This was part of a big private estate. The owners had two picnic shelters like this one.

Passing under I-77.

This was taken as we passed Shot Tower State Park. It's an historical park. The shot tower above was used to make lead shot, which was then crafted into bullets. Molten lead would be pour from the top floor into a pool of water at the base where the drops of lead would cool into spheres suitable for transforming into bullets.

Video!

Camping and Kayaking.

Carole and I are going camping and kayaking for a few days. To the mountains of Virginia. We hope to do some kayaking on the New River. We booked a campsite with the National Forest Service where we stayed back in 2009.

Nice campground with great facilities.

This place is called "Monster Rock".

We were there in late May in 2009, so the blossoms were still in the process of opening.

Hiking along a series of peaks called "the Seven Sisters".

I took this selfie on a trail that was once part of the Appalachian Trail. But the AT was rerouted because this section had too long a stretch with no reliable water source. It was a tremendous ridge hike with no drops into any deep gaps or valleys.

Rain Drenches All!

Carole and I drove up to the mountains for a canoe trip on the New River. However, the level of rainfall that the region has received over the past few weeks (and which it continues to receive) has pushed the New River beyond its banks. It just wasn't safe to go canoeing in that waterway. In addition, the downpours have transformed the relatively clear mountain river into a muddy morass. I frankly wouldn't want to canoe or kayak on the New River while it looks like a low country mudheap.

So we did a few other things in place of the canoe trip. I'll post some details later.

Even hiking was out of the question in the relentless rain. So we drove to some touristy spots, including the Moses Cone Mansion on the Blue Ridge Parkway. This was his "vacation" home. Enormous. The house sat amid 3600 acres of high mountain land. But it's now all National Park property. When you go inside the building some ugly, officious skanks will tell you that you can take photos of the architecture, but not the "art" that is being sold inside (said "art" being lousy pottery, cheap jewelery, crummy walking staffs, and various other junk--none of which I'd buy). So I was taking photos of the inside of the house and they told me that I had to stop because I was getting the "art" in my photos. I'd have raised far more Hell than I did, but Carole didn't want to deal with the grief. But I continued to take photos.

At what I was told is North Carolina's only commercial cheese factory. We sampled cheese and bought cheese and butter to bring home.