FIRST SATURDAY OUTING

May 4, 2013

You're invited to DRBA's May 4 First Saturday Outing on the Dan River, launching at Eden's Draper Landing Access. Will Truslow, avid kayaker and a past president of DRBA, will coordinate the seven-mile float from the public river access point to just below the Berry Hill Bridge at the North Carolina-Virginia line. 

We'll meet at 10:00 a.m. at the access's graveled parking lot beside the NC 700 Bridge to set the shuttle (GPS 36.4987, -79.6814). Three Rivers Outfitters of Eden, 336-627-6215 or www.3-R-O.com, will offer boat rentals and shuttle for the float, which will end on private property with the owner's permission.

In this river trip of Class I water, we'll navigate at least seven ledges and shoals with long-standing historic names found on old maps.  Six of these have been made easier to navigate by structures such as sluice walls built in the nineteenth century by the Roanoke Navigation Company and the US Army Corps of Engineers.  The sluices concentrate the river's water over shallow ledges, creating a channel deep enough to float long, narrow batteaux, the commercial "semi-trailers" of early river travel.  Today's boaters benefit from the still-working navigation system that makes the river floatable even in extreme drought.

Nearly a century before the river was improved for navigation, in 1728 a survey team led by Virginia's William Byrd determined the "dividing line" between North Carolina and Virginia. Byrd named the Dan River for the river in northern Israel and gave names that still survive to many of the river's tributaries. One was Cascade Creek, which enters from river left about halfway through the trip, so called "by reason of the multitude of waterfalls that are in it" some distance before it reaches the Dan.

Devil's Jump Shoal, just downstream from Cascade Creek, is named for impressive mid-river rocks. On river right less than a mile downstream from Devil's Jump is the confluence of the Dan with Tanyard Creek, named for the tannery owned by John Morehead, father of North Carolina Governor John Motley Morehead, who grew up nearby.

Other examples of intriguing nineteenth-century labels are Beasley's Gallows Shoal Sluice and the well-preserved Hairston's Fish Trap Sluice, likely modified from an Amerindian fish weir of 1000 years ago.

The trip is part of the series of over 100 First Saturday Outings that have been offered by DRBA for over a decade. On earlier floats along this section of the Dan, clusters of large Great Blue Heron nests have been spotted high in the trees. Herons often escort DRBA's flotilla along the river, unless they are busy with their family duties.

Other interesting facts about the geology, history, and culture of this section of the river are found in Maps 42 - 45 of "An Insider's Guide to the Dan River in North Carolina and Virginia," which is available at www.danriver.org .

Participants in the outing are asked to provide boat, life jackets, lunch and water, to dress in layers of artificial (quick-drying) fabric and to sign a waiver. 

DIRECTIONS: To reach Draper Landing Access from the north or west, take NC 14 to NC 700 East.  Travel on NC 700 about 4 miles through Eden to the bridge over the Dan River. After crossing the bridge, go 0.1 mile and turn left into the gravel driveway to the access.
From the south take US 29 North, turning left (west) on NC 700.  Just past Quesinberry Road, turn right into the gravel driveway to the access beside the NC 700 Bridge over the Dan.
From the east take US 29 South, turning right (west) on NC 700, and proceed as described above.

MORE INFORMATION: Will Truslow, 336-547-1903, willtruslow@hotmail.com