How to Access the Middle Haw?

How to Access the Middle Haw?

a Carolina Paddler Article

By Bob Brueckner and Alton Chewning

-The Bynum Mill access is closed.  Gates locked.  The Haw River is running, and you want to get on the Middle, maybe just to run it or maybe to do both the Middle and Lower. How to put on?  The Bynum Dam?  The Bynum Beach Rd access?

On Monday, September 23, the Haw access known as Bynum Mill or just simply Bynum access was closed for the start of construction.  Both the lower parking lot and the upper one (beside the pedestrian bridge) are closed.  As part of the project, a restroom facility will be built, the parking lots repaved, and a pathway and paddle-boat ramp constructed.  The process will take an estimated nine months, meaning the area will be closed until at least early July of 2025.

Meanwhile, two options remain for boaters who want to travel the Middle Haw.  For clarity, the Lower Haw is normally the term used by planners, park supporters and the state to refer to the entire lower section of the Haw River, from above Bynum Dam down to Lake Jordan.  Paddlers typically refer to this span of river by three sections.  The Upper Haw starts at Chicken Bridge and ends at the Bynum Dam.  The Middle Haw starts at the bottom of the dam and runs to the put-in just beyond the Highway 64 bridge.  The Lower Haw starts at the Hwy 64 put-in and continues until the Haw empties into Jordan Lake.

Let’s consider each of the options for putting on the Middle Haw in Bynum.  Each has advantages and disadvantages.

The Bynum Dam  The 15-501 Bynum Dam access on river left has a large, well-groomed parking lot, just off the highway.  From this point the user friendliness declines. To put in below the dam, paddlers must shoulder their boats and trudge steeply down an eroded path to the top of the dam spillway, cross some narrow points, slide their boats down a drop and then jump or scramble down.  All this must be done in sometimes wet and slippery conditions.  It’s doable but hardly convenient.

Once a boat is in the water, the paddler must ferry across to mid-river, taking care not to get too close to the dangerous hydraulic backflow of the water rushing over the dam, and not dropping too far downriver into trees, rocks and floating obstructions.

A well-executed ferry puts the paddler in a channel mid-river where the run downstream can proceed.  Easy enough for most people on most occasions.  However, with high water or low skills, the degree of difficulty increases; a blown ferry could lead to entanglements with strainers, rocks or living trees.

Speaking of trees, on high water days, a log will occasionally catapult over the top of the dam, adding another free-flying hazard to the situation.

The South Bynum Access (AKA Bynum Beach Rd. Access, Bynum Beach).  This access is on river right, down the southern end of Bynum Road, where Bynum Beach Rd intersects. It has easy access to the river.  The problem here is parking. The small parking area for perhaps two vehicles is at the south side termination of the pedestrian bridge. There are signs posted indicating parking is only allowed for unloading. The vehicles must then be moved.  There is no parking in the immediate area, a problem we will consider below.

Once unloaded (and vehicles moved) boaters can shoulder their loads and walk down a well-maintained, gradually sloping path to the riverbank.  The put-in, depending on water level, is a bit uneven but easily managed.

A helpful paddling gauge is marked on one of the pedestrian bridge’s abutments, the zero-mark indicating just enough flow for a good paddle.

Where do we park the vehicles?  The Hwy 15-501 access is too far away, on the other side of the bridge and the four-lane highway.  Across the pedestrian bridge to the right is the small parking lot, now closed.

On the other side of Bynum Rd, is an intersecting street, Charlie Fields Road, with the Bynum UMC Community Center (formerly the Ruritan Club) on the corner.  There is limited parking here and on a small strip in front of it, owned by the Haw River Assembly.

This parking could be a viable option, but official permission has not been given yet. A request has been made.  If parking is allowed it would be for everyone using the area: walkers, birders and boaters so we would need to be compact with our vehicles and considerate of others.  Other parking, a little more distant, is being explored.

If this parking becomes available, a shuttle driver would need to drive from the unloading parking spot on Bynum Beach Road back to Hwy 15-501, turn right to head north to cross the river, take the first right onto Durham-Eubanks Rd, follow Durham-Eubanks to the stop sign, turn right onto Bynum Rd and the Bynum UMC Community Center is on the right. Park and then walk across the pedestrian bridge to join other paddlers and put in.

Once the Bynum Mill access is finished and open, sometime next summer, it will be a wonderful resource for all to use.  Easy to access, park, use the restrooms and enter the water.  Until then, we’ll need to make do when running the Middle Haw.  Choosing the Bynum Dam put-in for some occasions, exercising caution, and the Bynum Beach Rd. access for others, practicing courteous use of the limited parking.  Then we paddle.

“Lagniappe”   Pronounced as a French word, lagniappe (lan-yap) is a Cajun-French inspired noun that means “a little extra.”

Haw Lagniappe:   “River gravity.
  My aerobics teacher and artist friend Karen shows me her house next to the river, apologizes for the random placement of furniture. “Chairs move across the floor toward the river when it floods.”

“The Sweet Strangeness of Bynum, North Carolina” by Marjorie Hudson, from Garden and Gun magazine