Eno River at 4.5 Feet – Bob Brueckner
| River: | Eno |
| Skill: | Novice |
| Trip Date: | 05/01/2006 |
Paddlers: Mike Swaim (K-1), Bob Brueckner (K-1), Marilyn Gist and Paul Moro (OC-2)
River: Eno, Pleasant Green to Cole Mill
Distance: 3.6 miles
Difficulty: Class I-II
Water Level: 4.5 feet on Pleasant Green bridge, 3 feet on Cole Mill Road bridge. The minimum on the bridge gauges is 0.5 feet.
Guidebook: "Paddling Easter North Carolina" by Paul Ferguson
Sighted: Bill and Christine Camp and Laura Wright about to put-in at the Cole Mill access for a run to West Point on the Eno. It had been a while since I had last seen them in paddling gear.
We had plenty of water on the Eno this afternoon between Pleasant Green and Cole Mill Road. Thunderstorms cut in to our playing after the first mile, but who can complain about all the rain?
If you plan to run this section at higher water levels, a strong jet of water shoots through the dam on river right where the old sluice gates used to hang. That jet runs right past the Pleasant Green put-in, which means there's no eddy. The current also hits a large tree about 10 feet downstream from the put-in, which means you need a strong, instantaneous ferry to escape a possible sideways encounter with Mr. Sycamore.
A more sane solution is to carry your boat down the nicely mowed path to the bridge. Put-in on the downstream side of the bridge (river right) and ease out to the center of the channel for the best route through an almost river-wide strainer. Ms. Strainer is courteous and graciously dips enough in the center to allow passage. You can easily scout this strainer from atop the bridge. (Watch out for speeding cars!)
The river level was obviously changing quickly during this trip, but the surfing wave upstream of the Bobbitt Hole was quite wonderful in a Diesel 65. There's a large eddy on river right and an easy entrance, so don't pass up this special feature. I would have surfed for the better part of the afternoon except for the lightning flashes and rumbles of thunder. But I'm not complaining about the rain.
Oh, and don't go too far downstream from the nearly submerged take-out, because it means you have to paddle back upstream to the bottom of a rapid and then you have to squeeze through the rocks and poison ivy to reach the take-out path. Not that this actually happened to me, but it's just sage advice for those of you who might consider passing up the take-out for the thrill of one more rapid.