Catherine R. Hofmann

6 of us set out towards the North Carolina coast last Saturday with beef jerky, whiskey, sleeping bags, and miscellaneous supplies (I’m not going to list them like I did for Puerto Rico, but it was similar). We met Heber of Roanoke Outdoor Adventures (highly recommended) with the canoes, loaded our gear, and paddled out. The Roanoke River is wide and calm, surrounded by wetlands, and undeveloped. It was literally us and the birds; we didn’t see a cloud for 3 days. The current was such that we could float or wedge into a sunken log to read, write, or take a nap. We often lashed the canoes together to drift and drink, telling stories and cracking joke all afternoon–it was great. At night we paddled to our dock and set up camp on elevated platforms. The mosquitos were bad enough that I slept in my canoe about 100 yards out the second night, waking at dawn, surrounded by lilypads. By Monday I was tired, sun sore, and completely relaxed.

Heber is getting the rest of his clients together for a day paddle and pig-pickin’ later this summer so we’re looking forward to that. He had so many great stories about the river and his life growing up there. The boat in the below pictures is made entirely of fiberglass by a father and son duo who ran a fiberglass manufacturing plant (surprise!).

We paddled about 16 miles from Jamestown to Plymouth, NC

Photos courtesy of disposable cameras by Nic A. and Sasha R.