Paddling North Carolina's New River: Part I

Articles in this Topic Discussions in this Topic

Mar 31, 2005

If you are looking for fun, adventure, good exercise, relaxation, and beautiful scenery all rolled into a single experience, you might want to try a canoe trip on the North Carolina section of the New River. Most famous for its exhilarating white water further north in West Virginia, the North Carolina section of the New River is much calmer and offers excellent opportunities for friends and family to enjoy the beauties of nature. I learned this first-hand 12 years ago when I took a canoe trip on the New River.

It was early August 1993. I remember this well because it was only three weeks before I was to start graduate school. A good friend of mine who had paddled this section of the New River once before asked me if I would like to join him and two others on the trip. I had never been in a canoe before but thought it sounded like fun, so I agreed to join them. I would not be disappointed.

Our day started early. We had just over a two hour drive from Salisbury, NC to our put-in point at New River Outfitters in Jefferson, NC. The first part of our drive was through suburban towns near Charlotte, North Carolina following Interstate 77 North toward the foothills section of the state. Not long after we exited Interstate 77 onto Highway 421, the scenery began to change to that of Appalachian mountain terrain. From the road, the nature of summertime Appalachia began to display itself all around. The green hills and mountains combined with summertime flowers, early morning sunlight, and dew-covered meadows. And this was just a taste of what we would experience later in the day.

We arrived at New River Outfitters around 9:30 AM - in time to take care of the preliminaries before starting our canoe trip at 10:00 AM. We had reserved our canoes in advance (which is highly recommended especially during peak season) so we paid for our trip, received some directions and instructions from one of the guides at the store as we signed the obligatory waiver forms that always come along with using a river outfitter or other company involved in the fun and adventure industry. We then walked to the river and went about getting ourselves and our canoes ready. New River Outfitters offers daily canoe trips that last from up to one hour to all day (about six hours) as well as overnight trips that last from two to six days. We were taking the all-day (six-hour) trip and would be paddling a total of approximately 16 miles in that time. We were putting in at the New River Outfitters store on the New River (just off of Highway 221) and would be canoeing to a pick-up point just over the Virginia border in Mouth of Wilson, Va. My friend and I would be sharing a canoe and our two companions for this trip would share the other.

Go To Page: 1 2 3

The copyright of the article Paddling North Carolina's New River: Part I in North & South Carolina is owned by . Permission to republish Paddling North Carolina's New River: Part I in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.