Beginner trip on the Fear
| River: | Cape Fear |
| Skill: | All |
| Trip Date: | 04/27/2013 |
I've been doing beginner trips on the last weekend of April, with the occasional lapse, since 1996, so I figured, "What the heck, let's do it again! I mean, it's not like we could have nine boats along, flip thirteen, and snap one in half … like the first time". The last weekend of April tends to be about the first weekend of the year that it's likely to be warm enough that you can plan ahead of time, yet still early enough that there's going to be enough (if only just) water somewhere. While every so often that's the Eno or Haw, it's almost always the Cape Fear.
Early in the week the forecast was 70 degrees and a 50% chance of rain, but as the week progressed we moved to 40%, then 30% in the afternoon only, and finally settled in on 74 degrees and only a 20% change of rain (AND the likelihood of rain all NEXT week). Perfect! The Fear was running at a mere 2' but at least it was above the 1.6' that I've sworn (twice!) to never run at that level again, so we were all set.
For better or worse, I can float a fair number of people with the boats and gear around the house. A good thing too, given that times have changed, and I can't swing by River Runners Emporium or Pro Canoe anymore. Pro Canoe even used to know my voice on the phone we ran trips so often – I miss them!
We lost three people on the two days leading up to the trip, added one the night of (and then lost him again the morning of), leaving us with Jenny, Marnie, Matt, Chris, and myself, and a bit of a problem. You see, one of those we lost was the individual with a truck, and everyone else has a small, non-boating cars with no racks (and one of those was a two-seater convertible!). But with a bit of gyration, we loaded three sit-on-tops on the roof of my Focus, and my Fun in its traditional car-interior spot and we were set to go.
After that, things went just as they should with a beautiful sunny day. No sign of the bald eagles, but the expected turtles and heron scattered around the river-scape. The Fear is a marvelous beginner river, as it starts out flat, and only slowly adds a riffle here and there, scaling up so that each feature is only slightly more so than the features that came before. Plenty of time for people to learn it's hard to go straight, and then figure out how about the time they need to.
There were a lot of other people on the water (mostly fishermen in rec boats), and the first two of my usual spots to stop for lunch were occupied, but we finally settled in at Lunch Stop for a lunch with pleasant company.
The rest of the day continued as it had begun, on the water with just the right weather and company. As we neared the end, we had just the right level of ," woah woah, ok" to add a bit of excitement with still no OOBE (Out of Boat Experience).
After packing back up all the people and gear, we ended up at Howard's Barbecue and Seafood in Lillington, just the right ending for the day.
All that remains to be seen is if everyone can lift their arms above their head tomorrow! 🙂