2007 Lower Neuse River Kayak Trip
With The Lower Neuse Riverkeeper
and the Neuse River Foundation Board

21 April 2007 - A kayak trip down Batchelor's Creek, a tributary to the lower Neuse river near New Bern North Carolina.  (click the thumbnails for a larger view, or click here to fly to our route via Google Earth).  As the crow flies it is only five miles from the put-in point to the take-out point but as the kayak paddles it was 9.7 miles.  We all felt great at the end of the paddle but everyone's upper arms and shoulders did get a workout.

We arrived at 9:30am at Union Point Park in New Bern and met the Lower Neuse Riverkeeper, Larry Baldwin, and some members of the board of directors of the Neuse River Foundation.  He headed to our take-out point, Glenburnie Park. 

There we parked our car and headed out to the put-in point at the intersection of NC Highway 43 and Batchelor's Creek.  We parked the cars beside the road and unloaded the kayaks and carried them down to the creek beside the bridge.  We all had our foot pegs adjusted just so and one by one we launched into the creek. 

What a beautiful creek it is!  This creek is a quiet tree-lined freshwater tributary to the lower Neuse River.  Following are pictures of our paddle down the creek.  As you can see from the map above, the creek joins a side channel of the Neuse River at Hog Island.  That side channel of the Neuse is called "The Gut".  We joined the main channel just a little way from our take-out point.

This kayak trip was a present to us from my brother John.  John got the trip by being the high bidder in a charity auction.  He looked at the trip on the auction site and thought, "I know what a reasonable price for such a trip should be." John put in that bid and it turned out to be the high bid.  John never suspected that he would win the trip.  Because he knew that Evelyn and I had just purchased two kayaks for paddling around the bays and creeks near Morehead City, he thought we would have a good time doing this trip.  Well, John was certainly right! 

We had a wonderful day.  The trip could have been done last summer, but Evelyn suggested that we try for a spring trip when the bugs are not so bad and the weather is not so hot.  A nicer day to paddle down Batchelor Creek could not have been picked.  And we could not have had better kayak guides than this group of river folks.  We learned a lot about the lower Neuse river and the challenges facing this river and saw turtles, sea hawks, ducks, loons, fish, and a few fishermen. 

A fishing competition was going on and we saw a few of the boats fishing along the creek as we quietly paddled by them.  About the half way mark we beached our kayaks and had a water break.  The foundation even had a john boat along in case anyone needed help Bill Snyder ran the john boat and tracked us the whole way.  It was good having Bill along, but no one needed a rescue.  At the end of the paddle back in Glenburnie Park we had a wonderful picnic and took pictures.

The john boat captain Bill Snyder, Diane and Larry
 

A Beautiful Old Cypress

A Beautiful Old Cypress

The Entire Crew (except Me)
Carol, Diane, Bill, Evelyn, Ginny, Dave, Larry, Joe

The Entire crew (Except Bill)

Zach, Evelyn, Ginny and Joe

Joe & Evelyn And A Pint

The Cox Family Kayak Trip T-Shirt Logo

Ginny And A Pint

What a delightful trip. 
We thank the Lower Neuse Riverkeeper Larry Baldwin,
and the Neuse River Foundation for making this trip possible. 
A nicer group of people,
a more beautiful day,
and a finer paddle could not have happened.

Send an E-MAIL Note Zach.D.Cox@GMail.COM
Visit my home page http://www.pobox.com/~zachcox
This page last updated Monday, April 23, 2007 09:25:33 -0400