For several years I have been missing outdoor trips and sports exercise from multiple surgeries with the associated disability and pain.  All along I have anticipated when I can return to solid exercise.  For several months now I have been working my way up to backpacking.  Many times, I walked the 1-mile trail around Smith Creek Park lake up to three times in a row for 3 miles, sometimes with a moderately heavy day pack.  After 3 circuits I was not exhausted, but I was plenty sore and tired.  Several times lately I have loaded a daypack or backpack for a real trip to the woods, and got dressed for cold weather, but each time I was stymied by some problem.

Finally, yesterday (January 17) the stars aligned, and I was able to hike part of the Neusiok Trail in Croatan National Forest.  My route was from the parking lot at the road crossing at NC Hwy 306, going 3.1 miles to Copperhead Landing trail shelter.  The shelter sits beside Cahoogue Creek, a tributary of Neuse River.  The creek is far enough upstream that the water is not salty and can be filtered for drinking and cooking. I was concerned that I may be biting off a little more than I could chew, since during the same day, I would have to hike from the shelter back to the trail head, for a total of 6.2 miles. I had not hiked that far in more than four years.

I navigated with three electronic devices.  First was my Garmin Montana 750i GPS, which performed flawlessly.  The flawless functioning may not sound like much, but I have owned the Montana for about ten years, using it frequently.  I never had a trip when I could figure out how to make all the function work.  Something always failed to appear correctly on the screen. It is a cussedly complicated and obstinate device with nothing intuitive about its operation.  The Montana also has many other satellite functions that I did not need, like sending a 911 call for rescue or sending a text to a friend. This was my first trip when everything worked to show my location and route. 

The second device was my iPhone app called Avenza. This trip was my first use.  It downloads maps from the Internet which are complete areas, like a state or national park or forest.  Even better, it is interactive, using the iPhone’s GPS capabilities to show the user’s location as he moves along, and can be programmed to set waypoints and routes. I also glanced at the All Trails app on my phone, which was working and correctly showed my location.

Thirdly, I invented a way to find maps on the Internet, download them from the website to my computer, move them to my iPhone as a PDF attachment, and then save them on the phone as a static document.  Several Apple technicians told me this process is impossible, but my son-in-law Steven Harris helped me set it up. This function is not interactive, but that map was the only one I had which showed the location of the shelter.

I had two purposes for this trip. The first one was to get to, and assess, the shelter with its water source, to prepare for a backpacking trip there in the near future. The second purpose was to test my body and see if I could hike a little over 6 miles.  When I come back, I will have the disadvantage of carrying a heavier pack.  But I will have the advantage of only hiking 3 miles to the shelter, with a night of rest in between, and then 3 more miles back the next day. 

The first half of the trip went well.  I had no problems. In my itinerary, I had allowed for going slowly, and taking 3 hours to cover 3 miles, for 1 mile an hour.  Happily, I surprised myself by arriving at the shelter in 1.5 hours, for 2 miles an hour.  I checked out the shelter, explored the trail to the creek and ate a spartan trail lunch.  Everything was fine to come back and spend the night camping.

Hiking back to the Jeep was a different story.  My pinched sciatica nerve causes two problems.  The intermittent pain has never gone away despite my surgery last year.  My surgeon says the pain will gradually decrease, but there is no guarantee it will totally disappear. As I walked 4, 5 and 6 miles the pain gradually grew. The second problem is the major nerve from my spine to my right leg is damaged.  My surgeon says it will eventually recover, but the nerve is taking plenty of time to do so.  The damaged nerve is not quite able to control my leg muscles, so occasionally I lose my balance and stumble slightly forward. Each time I was able to catch my self and not fall to the ground, but the incessant stumbles several hundred times was wearing and tiring.

Another factor was that I was using muscles in my hips and thighs which had not felt this form of exercise for 4 years.  As I progressed, they began to hurt. By the last mile back to the trail head I was considerably tired, sore and in some pain. 

I had my single wood  hiking staff, but it was not sufficient. With only one pole I was not fully secure and balanced.  And with no wrist strap, I got a blister on my hand from gripping it.  Next hike or backpacking trip I will use my two trekking poles with straps.

Astoundingly, when I arrived back at the trail head, I was amazed to see that I covered the final 3.1 miles in 1.5 hours, at 2 miles an hour.  The same speed as the first 3 miles.  I frankly don’t know how I did it.  Next trip, I will go slower and try to spread out the wear and tear on my body.

A good time was mostly had by me.

On January 12, Angela Marshal, owner and operator of Kayak Carolin Wilmington, organized a kayak paddle trip with invitations through the MeetUp website. We met at Newby’s Landing near Kelly, NC, on the Black River in Bladen County, NC - not to be confused with several other Black Rivers in NC and SC.  We had eight hardy paddlers. At the put-in, besides the  usual business of unloading boats from vehicles, attaching equipment and getting into water clothes, we all, but young man guide Jared, put on extra layers of neoprene, wool and fleece to protect against the cold. The temperature ranged from a low of 28 degrees the night before to a high of 47 degrees that afternoon. When I left home there was frost on my Jeep windshield.

Some of the paddlers know each other; and some knew the river. Some of  us did not know all the other paddlers or the water.

When we got on the river, we formed a loose collection and paddled upstream against a mild, barely discernable current.  Jared, a guide with experience and a sleek boat, paddled ahead and became the unofficial leader for a while.  Angela was near the middle and kept track of all the boaters, based on her 26 years’ experience.   The river is surrounded in some places by long distances of swamps.  Driving to and from the river, the road passes more miles of swamps.

A few miles further upstream, the river’s edge became less straight and defined, with inlets of water which we explored between the trunks of large, ancient cypress trees. The main channel also narrowed, which quickened the current.  After a few miles we came to a stop to wait for some boaters to catch up from behind us.  To prevent having to paddle constantly against the firm current, our group split up and found slack water eddies up and down the shore.  A couple of boaters ventured further away from the river to explore into the swamp.

When we all got back together, we turned down stream towards the put-in / take-out.  Some boaters mostly drifted with the current.  I was too cold and had to paddle ahead to use my muscles, burn energy and try to warm up my body’s extremities.

Over several decades, many years ago, I wore a single wetsuit while paddling my canoe in the NC mountain creeks, in weather colder than today, with no problem.  But now my age is 72 years, and my physiology is changing. Amont other things, my blood circulation is not as good as it used to be. In cold weather, my body has trouble moving enough blood to my hands and feet to keep them warm.  Today, as a precaution, I wore two over-lapping wet suits, the bottom layer being a full suit and the top layer having short sleeves and legs.  This was the first time I have tried this combination.  I was concerned that the top layer would be too tight to get on, but fortunately it slid smoothly over the bottom layer. They worked fine to keep my torso and head warm.

But, my hands and feet stayed cold; not enough to be disabling, but uncomfortably so.  When we turned the trip to head back down stream, my fingers were getting numb.  I have decided that I will do more winter paddling trips, but I believe that I will need to limit my outings to weather  50 degrees or above.

At the take-out, a few of the paddlers like me were quick to disembark, load up equipment and get inside their vehicles to start the motors and warm up.  While driving home, just a couple of miles from the take-out, I parked beside the road to enter some information in my GPS.  Three of our paddlers passed me, and all three stopped their vehicles to ask if I needed help! What a nice group!  Thanks, Angela, for arranging and managing everything.

A good time was had by all.

For many years, backpacking was my main outdoor sport, along with tennis, snow skiing, scuba diving and others.  Due to my pain before, during and after arthritis, right hip joint replacement surgery, left hip joint replacement surgery, and pinched nerve spinal surgery, I have not backpacked for about five years.

I have now recuperated to the point where I have practiced carrying a pack for three miles around the path at a local county park. With significantly reduced pain, I think I am able to handle a backpacking trip.

For several weeks I have been planning an outing today, January 8, as my first post-surgery backpacking trip. The plan is to hike on the Neusiok Trail in Croatian National Forest, from the trail crossing at NC Highway 306, going northwest to the Copperhead Landing shelter near the Pine Cliff Recreation Area.

Unfortunately, today we happen to be in the grip of a major winter storm that is covering most of the country. The weather report for this trip was predicted to be high of 43 degrees and low of  23 degrees. I have camped in weather colder than that, so I believe that I could stand it.

The weather at my mine and Janet's house last night got down to 27 degrees.  So, I brought my electronic devices like GPS, cell phone charger and headlamp into inside the house overnight to prevent the cold from sapping the batteries’ energy.

This morning, I went out to my shed to finish loading my backpack.  I had forgotten about the water in the pack.  I was disappointed to see that the water in my hydration bladder and drinking tube had frozen.  It would take me a while to thaw them out; or replace them with canteens which I could insulate and make stay liquid..

Another problem was I had on most of my winter clothes. They were sufficient to make my torso warm enough to be slightly sweaty. But I was not wearing gloves because I was doing small tasks with my gear. The cold had such a strong grip on my uncovered fingers that I could not get my body to push enough warm blood there. Within about 15 minutes my fingers went numb and I could not do the work.

These problems bothered me enough that I looked at my phone to check the weather. I was surprised to see the National Weather Service sent me an alert, warning of abnormally severe cold tonight. The prediction changed to a low tonight of 11 degrees. At the same moment, I received a message from one of my Facebook hiking groups giving me the same warning.  It advised to stay indoors. If I had not seen those warnings and gone on the trip, I would have been in significant danger and severe discomfort.

I decided that wisdom is the better part of valor. So, I have rescheduled the trip to sometime in the next week or two when the weather is more cooperative. 

A good time was not had by all.

There is an old, large, arboreal cemetery near where Janet and I live next to the Historic District in Wilmington, NC.  It is appropriately named Oak Dale.  The grounds are full of big, old live oak trees, some with Spanish moss and ivy draped on their limbs.  It is a most pleasant place to be, so Janet Smith and her golden retriever Gracie and I walk or ride our bikes there nearly every day.

The lanes are mostly circuitous rather than straight, and mostly grassy rather than paved. It is a calming and soothing place to get some moderate exercise.  Several sides of the park-like area are bounded by swamps, which adds to the natural atmosphere.

Some of the gravestones show birthdates back in the early 1800’s.  Quite a few Civil War Confederate veterans are buried here.  And, some more recent well-known persons are interred here, like Graham Keenan, who donated the funds to build Kenan football stadium at UNC Chapel Hill University. 

For 60 years I have canoed all over the mountains of west North Carolina, east Tennessee, southwest Virginia and northwest Georgia.  I paddled in creeks, rivers and lakes.  Flatwater and  whitewater.  I was not particularly concerned about turning over.  I had a boat full of flotation bags, a bailer, bow and stern painters and a throw rope.  They always served me well.

Then about 15 years ago I got a cheap, roto-molded plastic sea going kayak. I did not even have a spray skirt or paddle float.  A few times a year I would drive to the coast near Bogue Banks and Croatan National Forest to paddle my kayak in the creeks, lakes and estuaries.  A few times, I carried a boat load of camp gear to paddle from Hammocks Beach State Park and spent several overnights on Bear Island. With this boat, I also did not worry about capsizing.

A few years ago, when I retired from living in the Blue Ridge Mountains and moved to New Bern near the coast, I found it to be a hot bed for kayakers.  All of my life I have had a main sport, transitioning from backpacking, to volleyball, to tennis and so on. In New Bern, I made kayaking my new main sport and joined the Twin Rivers Paddle Club.  In the club I met my good friend Bill Webb, who sold me a first-class British kayak. When I started paddling this good boat, some unknown factor flipped a switch in my brain, and I became conscious of how easily I could capsize, and how difficult it would be to get back in my boat. 

When I later moved to Wilmington and met my special lady friend Janet Smith, I was happy to see that she was an avid kayaker and liked to go often.  Now, I had painted myself into a corner.  Kayaking was my main sport, and I was afraid to paddle for fear of turning over and getting stuck in the water.

So, for the next year and half, every time that I paddled, I carried the burden of worrying about staying upright.  I attended several TRPC sponsored kayak rescue clinics, but each time I only observed.  I was prevented from getting in the water due to several different physiological problems. I also watched numerous rescue videos, but seeing is different from doing.  I was so frustrated that this Fall I asked a TRPC rescue instructor,  John Burt, to do another clinic, just for me.  He recruited another instructor, Terry Rich.  I am grateful that they planned, organized and taught the class on December 21, at the New Bern YMCA pool. They also wisely opened the class to other students.

Several TRPC members participated with their boats in the water. Several more members attended to observe. A couple of the observers who had not seen me for 11 months, since I moved from New Bern, complemented me for losing 40 pounds in 11 months. That weight loss certainly helped me to hoist my still somewhat chubby torso out of the water and into my cockpit.  The credit for reducing my body size goes to Janet, who is an expert on food, nutrition and calories. She is also demanding of me to get some hard exercise every day.

Besides being experts on all things about kayaks, paddling and rescues, John and Terry are super, super, nice men.  We could not have asked for better teachers.  Thank you, John and Terry.  After the clinic, one of the instructors let me know that I had done well in the class, had successfully performed the skills and could do tandem and solo rescues.  I felt like a great weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

My main problem was my seat back. Many years ago, I sprained my lower back muscles trying to learn a kayak eskimo roll.  It was so bad that it took a year to heal.  Since then, I have had a weak lower back.  Consequently, I need a tall, stiff kayak seat back to help hold me up.  My current kayak has such a seat back, which sticks up above the top of the cockpit rim.  It gets squarely in the way when doing a self-rescue. Several times I dragged it forward with my chest and it lay down under me when I sat.  It became literally a pain in my butt to get the back up and off the seat.  A couple other times, I evaded this problem, but I had to make an extra effort to push up off the back deck with my arms to get over it.

I received several take-aways from this class. First, kayaks are designed to sit in calmly and paddle forward.  When the boat gets tasked with other projects, like staying upright during the rescue of the paddler, or assisting the rescue of another paddler, then they get squirrelly.  The paddler must keep constantly in mind a tool or procedure to provide balance, like an extended paddle, sculling or leaning on another boat. A paddler can be 95% through with a correct rescue action, and then forget for one second to keep a balance point, and he may go in the drink. Which means starting over.  I know from wet experience.

The second take-away is that one lesson does not make an expert rescuer. This skill requires many lessons.  If the Club sponsors a roll clinic this coming spring or summer, then I will participate.  Also needed is much-repeated practice.  And nearly daily physical workouts to keep our muscles, joints and cardiovascular systems in shape.

A good time was had by all.  

On the cool and mostly sunny day of November 25, Janet and I (Bob Laney) went on our longest paddle trip to date.  We were outside for about 5 hours. We put-in our two kayaks at the Wrightsville SUP parking lot.  It is located off West Salisbury Street (US Hwy 74) on Harbor Island, just west of the bridge over Bank’s Channel near the northern end of Wrightsville Beach.  This place has a beautiful and handy little sand beach with a long, shallow slope into deeper water. Note to readers who may want to use this put in.  It is not a public parking lot or beach, and I had special permission from the business owner’s manager. During the busy season of April through October the business charges a fee for parking.

Our route was into Lee’s Cut, which is the northern end of Bank’s Channel.  It is salt water and has several miles of sea grass estuaries with winding, undefined channels. I attempted to use my Garmin Montana 750i GPS for navigation, but it only half worked.  It showed a track where we paddled, but the map on the screen did not show enough detail of the sea grass beds to tell which fork to take and where to make turns.  

After I got home while typing this article to post, I did some more map research and found that Google Earth on my cell phone screen shows good detail.  Next time I will use both the GPS and phone.

After entering Lee’s Cut, we turned left and went about 75 yards and turned left again under a short, low bridge.  From there we wound through the estuary most of the way to Causeway Drive (US Hwy 76).  

Then, I tried to activate the return function on the GPS to follow our track back to the put in. But the sequence of buttons to push and icons to tap were so convoluted and confusing that I could not make it work.  That made me mad.  It took several minutes of Janet’s pleasant humor and encouragement for me to get back into a good mood and enjoy the rest of the trip.

We could have, and should have, gone a short distance further to the end of the estuary at Causeway Drive. But I was upset with my semi-dysfunctional GPS. I was nervous that we could not find our way out of the sea grass maze.  So, I pushed Janet to turn around sooner than she wanted.  Next time, we will go all the way to Lee’s Nature Park beside Causeway Drive. On perhaps other future trips, we will go further west to the Intercoastal Waterway and further north to Big Lollipop Bay.

Janet’s golden retriever Gracie swam the whole way with us. After a while, she got tired.  Then while heading back, the tide was against us.  Out boats were sleek enough to sufficiently slice through the water, but in several places Gracie could not make headway.  We moved the boats over to paddle beside the shore and encourage Gracie to walk instead of swim.  But the banks were paved with a solid carpet of sharp oyster shells.  Gracie severely cut her paw and bled significantly.  The next day Janet took Gracie to the veterinarian who used four staples to close the wound.

After returning to our take-out at the quaint little beach, I unpacked all my gear from my kayak and loaded it with my cold-water clothes (wet suit and booties) into the Jeep. About 10 minutes later Janet let me know she was not finished paddling and wanted to go out again.  My sciatica pain had grown to the point that I decided to stay on the beach with Gracie.

Janet deputized me to go into Wrightsville Beach town to get some lunch.  But the restaurant she chose was closed, so we did without lunch.

Janet took off kayaking solo and crossed a large stretch of open water to another small beach on the other side of Lee’s Cut on the south side of an unnamed island. There she conversed with some other paddlers and learned of another route. She followed their directions and went further north on a channel through sea grass.  When she reached the houses and docks off Parmele Boulevard, she followed the channel circling to the right (east) around the unnamed island. She eventually came back to US-Hwy 74 and went under the bridge into Banks Channel.  I began to get worked for her where abouts and called her on our cell phones.  She responded and, in a few minutes, we were back together at the take-out.

A good time was had by all.

Late one evening in mid-November 2024 Janet Smith and I (Bob Laney) drove to the south end of Wrightsville Beach where the Banks Channel meets Masonboro Inlet. We were amazed at the large number of sail boats and some motor boats which came in from the Atlantic Ocean to the channel and went north to the many docks that line the water fronts for the night.

This area is famous for the soft light at dusk and the beautiful sunsets.  While we were there six groups of folks came down to the beach with photographers who took pictures of engaged couples and families.

We walked down the beach to the inlet and back while Gracie played in the cold surf.  A good time was had by all.

On a sunny afternoon in early November,2024, Janet Smith and Bob Laney (me) went pedaling at Blue Clay Bike Trail Park for the first time. It is advertised as a mountain bike trail, but being in New Hanover County near the coast, there were not any mountains.  There are three trails designated as beginner, intermediate and expert.  The expert trail does contain some short, steep climbs and tight turns. Janet and I stayed on the beginner trail, and it was plenty of fun.

Biking on dirt, grass and roots was new to Janet. Even without hills, the sometimes-rough trail surface and tight squeezes between trees were uncomfortable for her.  I have done a considerable amount of mountain biking at several professionally prepared trails in Wilkes County and Watauga County.  They are tough enough that the Appalachian State University mountain bike team practices there.  And multi-state competitions are held there.  I biked on the rough trails for a number of years, but as I got older, I could not handle the steepness and the exposure of falling off the trail down a steep hill.

We were pleasantly surprised with the views.  Most of the trail is in a mixed pine and hardwood forest. A few places were in open fields and passed a pond. We will go back again. 

A good time was had by all.

On the warm and mostly sunny afternoon of November 5, Janet Smith and Bob Laney pedaled our e-bikes the length of the Wilmington City to Sea Trail.  The trail mostly follows Eastwood Road (US Hwy 74) from the eastern side of Wilmington to the Intracoastal Waterway on the mainland side of Wrightsville Beach.

The trail has several distinct sections. The western part is an asphalt paved trail running between a major traffic street and developed  houses mixed with shopping centers. Then it joins city sidewalks for a number of blocks. Several places require crossing small side streets.  One major intersection requires crossing a major highway of about 10 lanes.  Fortunately, a stoplight helps with the crossing.

The eastern part of the trail ducks down into shaded woods on another asphalt paved trail winding between a forest and a wooden fence protecting the upscale Land Fall housing development.  This trail opens out of the woods onto a quaint street of small houses looking over an estuary to the Intracoastal Waterway. 

Most of these houses have a small yard across the street adjoining their boat docks. Janet and I had our picnic lunch on a wooden bench in one of those yards.  A good time was had by all.

Banks Channel in the Wind

On Saturday, November 2, the Calvary Baptist Church went on a paddle trip with the Kayak Carolina of Wilmington outfitter who supplied the boats and a guide.  They launched from the NC Wildlife ramp at Federal Point (the southern-most end of US Hwy 421) and went to Zeke’s Island. Janet Smith and I, Bob Laney, had registered to go, but we both developed back pain from musculo-skeletal problems which prevented us from participating.

So, the next day, November 3, Bob and Janet were still wanting to float a boat and wet a paddle, so we went on our own shorter trip in Banks Channel. We launched from a public water access point beside at the south end of Waynick Boulevard at the end of the long straight-away and just before the sharp left curve. 

Like our last time on Banks Channel, the wind was brisk.  It was just below the limit recommended by the Coast Gard for paddle boats.  We had considerable chop but no whitecaps. The bigger problem was passing large boats throwing out a wake which tossed us around.  During the first few wakes, Janet ducked into sheltered coves between boat docks.  Eventually, I showed her how to place her paddle blade flat on the top of the water in a low brace to stabilize her boat.  This procedure worked well for the rest of the trip.

We followed the standard rule and first paddled upstream (north) against the current, which happened to also be against the wind, to make our return trip easier and safer.  Upon returning to the take-out and put-in, I followed Janet past it further down-stream. We went to a large dock which housed the Coast Guard boats and was at the southern end of the peninsula.

When we turned around to go back to the take-out, we were now paddling against both the current and the wind.  As bad luck would have it, Murphy’s Law kicked in and the wind blowing in our faces picked up speed.  So, the final phase of our paddle was a good, strong workout.  Fortunately, we both had sleek, new boats which cut through the wind and water nicely.  Thanks to Bill Webb and Lori Bork for guiding us in our purchases.

A good time was had by all.