Eno River Trip Report
| River: | Eno |
| Skill: | All |
| Trip Date: | 11/11/2009 |
November 11, 2009. As the remnants of tropical storm Ida worked their way across the state, it was clear that something was going to be flowing in the Triangle. However, there did seem to be a whole lot of rain coming down pretty consistently since yesterday afternoon, and I had some concern about too much of a good thing. So, my approach was to be pretty conservative.
Eno River State Park in Durham is one of the prettiest places this side of Pilot Mountain and is right in our backyard. It offers 21 miles of trails and the Eno River runs through it. The Sunday before today, my wife and I had hiked in the park at the Cole Mill Road access in gorgeous 75 degree sunny November weather as the last of the leaves were coming down. Our hike took us across the cable suspension bridge and upstream to a rocky bed with a large outcropping on river left with about a 6 foot drop over 50 feet or so, where any paddler would respond with,"hmm, I'd like to see this with some water running through it." That is known as Frank's Ledge. At the time you could rock-hop across the river with some carefully placed steps.
I had paddled the section of the Eno from Pleasant Green to West Point several times, at the fairly unexciting but enjoyable 2-3 foot level, lots of 2- rapids with some stretches of flatwater. So, I wonder, how do I paddle through the section that we hiked? A quick look at the AW website shows an upper 6.2 mile section running from Lawrence Road to Pleasant Green with a description similar to the lower section. So I posted on the ccclist and got five takers, including my son Cameron Jones driving from Winston Salem, Jeff Dennie, John MacDonald, and Jenis Grindstaff, all from Raleigh. None of us had paddled this before but we are really talented guys and mostly able to keep myself, I mean ourselves, out of trouble.
We set shuttle and put in at Lawrence Road, where your only parking options are the shoulder of the road. This spot has not necessarily been developed as a put in, but it works. Looking back at the gauge readings for yesterday, we put in at 4 ft and took out at 6 ft. After 20 minutes of moving flatwater we worked our way through a long series of class 2 rapids for about an hour, with plenty of places to mess around. There were a fair number of hazards that were easily avoided and a lot of the water reading involved trying to figure whether a feature was the result of a large downed log or a rock. This led us to the rapid at the rock outcropping, Frank's Ledge. We took the opportunity to get out and scout the rapid on the conveniently placed wood trail structures on river left, which was a good move, and allowed us to turn what might have been a messy little mishap into a precisely executed operation. With that rapid behind us, we find that we have another 2/5 of the trip to make on flatwater. Oh well, a price worth paying. But, at the conclusion of the trip we do get to see a pretty spectacular steep creek section flowing pretty heavily into the Eno just up from the takeout. It looks runnable if you have the skills and are dressed for battle with rocks and, oh, if someone has cut the strainers out.
We could have taken out at Few's Ford, which I would definitely plan on in the future. It is probably a quarter mile hike from the parking to the trail, and it would have removed the last entire flatwater section. Depending on the conditions, it could even be park and play.
Wayne Jones