Cape Eno Haw Fear/CF Trip
| River: | Cape Fear |
| Skill: | Novice+/Intermediate |
| Trip Date: | 03/26/2022 |
2022 CAPE FEAR RIVER TRIP REPORT
March 26, 2022
Originally this trip was posted as the Cape Eno Haw Fear trip, giving a nod to the unpredictability of knowing suitable river levels. Someone joked about doing all three Triangle rivers in one day but the Triple Crown trip will have to wait. Low water elsewhere nudged the Cape Fear to the forefront for this day. At 6.5 feet it was plenty big enough for our group.
Rick Steeves has been urging me to lead a trip in an effort to have more people ready to lead trips during Week of Rivers. He led me through the process and I would encourage others to give it a try. For me, it was mostly about coordinating people and fretting over river and skill levels. Things work out. People offer to help. Some paddlers drop out and others join. Some river is doable.
In this case Will Holman, Steve Johnson and David Freeman offered to combine their planned Cape Fear paddle with our group. They are all knowledgeable with the river and very skilled paddlers. So, Angela Wiseman, Brandon Scarbel, “Mean” Joe Briscoe, Kristen Roberts and I joined them for a fun, splashy afternoon.
At the put in, the Cape Fear was moving brown and quick but did not look wild or flooded. It’s big and wide and rumbles on from the Lillington Wildlife access another 175 odd miles to dump into the Atlantic, the only North Carolina river to do so. We loaded up and headed downriver optimistic under a bright sun.
The first several miles are mostly flat so it became our social hour, our “getting to know you” time before hitting the rapids. We stopped briefly before the first rapid to have a snack, stretch our legs, observe nature and have Will give us a briefing on what to expect. Using sand drawings and pebbles, he stepped us through the rapids: Shaws Falls (a series of three ledges), Shaws Great Falls, Narrow Gap/Glassy Wave, Smiley’s Falls and Killing Falls. At this level most rapids have a safer line and a more butch, playful line.
We started running the river and after surviving the first couple of drops, wave trains and swirling waters, we became ambitious, saucy and ready for more. There wasn’t much quick maneuvering needed but the wave trains were prominent. We remembered to keep paddling, don’t stop paddling.
Below one rapid, Glassy Wave, Brandon was kind enough to demonstrate rolling a half slice boat in moving water. Steve showed us what surfing bigger holes looks like, David provided our certified safety net and Will did a bit of everything including filming our antics, including our class photo at the take out in Erwin. It really was a good day on the river and a confidence builder for many of us in many ways.
For anyone interested, the American Whitewater site for the Cape Fear has very detailed descriptions of the rapids. Valuable resource.