Rhode’s Pond Adventures

Rhode’s Pond Adventures,
Myself, Gene and Garret decided that, “ What The Heck”, moment and decided to try something new.
The early kayaker catches the downfall, and so it went for the first mile, there was a lot of downfall , and I will say, it was not looking good, the water was barely moving, and we was doing the same, but once we got to the end of the first mile things opened up, and quickly closed, when I say Closed, I mean, Closed, we had to paddle in single file, the water was that low ,and there was not so much the knolls , but from combination of water, knolls, water level, branches and downfall, I was thinking, this was quickly becoming the “ Adventures of the 3 Stooges ”. Larry, I mean Gene, lead the way, I figured let the chainsaw man in front, than Garret took front and they changed back and forth. I will say it was interesting and very peaceful, and was really a test of your kayaking skills, many quick turns, reading the water for flow, as well as all the “cat’s claw vines”. I stopped counting beaver dams after 25 and that was all in one miles
We also invented a new kayaking sport, “ Beaver Dam Sliding”, which we did this, 3 times and all enjoyed, but the beavers, one was spotted giving us the middle claw. I thought I heard beaver tail slapping, like to signal others we was coming, I do not know if this is a thing .
We found dry area around the power lines and took a 30 minute lunch, stretching our legs, we was thinking of taking a nap, we got back in and back to navigating through all this, some how Gene got away from us, myself and Garret thought maybe, Gene paddled ahead and called in a Sliver Alert for us.
We did run into a Heron Rookery, we paddled very slow and even stopped a few minutes under several nest to watch the majestic birds, I was hoping none of them would do a bombing run. Following your fellow kayaker was not an issue, was we left a broken trail of yellow pollen for others to follow. We did come to one interesting area, a small bridge, for foot or small vehicles that was blocked , but had a drain pipe on the right side, I thinking we could have pass through it, but there was downfall at the end, too risky, so we ended up ducking and weaving and pulling ourselves through.
All and all, it was really a great trip and seemed very remote with a large variety of wildlife that did not seem too concerned about human presence. We agreed that this would not be a could paddle later in the year, as it is a snake heaven, poison ivy, ( already showing up) , lots of cat’s claw, nor would this be a good run for beginner kayaker, at there was a lot of turns and knolls sitting height enough to “rock the boat baby”, and some really tight spots you actually had to lean you boat over hard to squeeze through. 6 inches more of water would have been a very easy run, but river connecting to Cape Fear, are like the Cape fear and drop up to a foot aday.
Gauge Dunn 1ft, Gauge Aurtyville 5.4ft
Put-in 0915hrs
Take-out 1400hrs
4:45 on the water
Distance 6.8 miles
Rhodes pond, ( Black River/ South River )
Shuttle was Gene and Myself
Paddles: Larry, Moe and Curly
GOOD TIMES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SRGross