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.
