Newport River, February 16, 2005,Morehead City
We set up shuttle at Crab Point Loop Road at the sharp west bend on Country Club Road. The following three pictures are what welcomed us. Nough said!
We put-in at Radio Island Morehead City Park on northeast shoulder of the high rise bridge.
It was foggy. I had been in a fog all morning. I was supposed to be on Ben Ball’s radio talk program at 6:45 AM. My apologies, Ben. I was in a fog more ways than one.
We stayed in a fog all day! Never saw a fog last so long. The tide took us toward Chimney Island but the westerly wind was blowing us to the east as we paddled along.
We came upon some island but no chimney. We turned west per our compasses and paddled and paddled into to a stiff west wind and finally spotted the chimney. I felt like I had paddled enough to be at our takeout at Crab Point Loop Road!
We landed on Chimney Island and immediately it was worth it all. Birds were everywhere. Apparently they don’t like the fog either. This is a very interesting island. The chimney is the focal point. Campers obviously think so too. We all just wish they would take their trash with them so others who come later could enjoy it too.
The white rectangle in the sky is the top of the huge chimney. The next one shows the beautiful bricks
We picked up trash and ate lunch and picked up more trash until we had my canoe full.
The next one is my loaded canoe. Folks, this is unnecessary. “If no one litters there will be no litter”. Wouldn’t that be wonderful. Let’s do it! Not litter, that is!.
The large snake will be a souvenir decoration on my back fence.
We aborted our trip plans and headed south to our put-in on Radio Island. The wind was in our face again having swung around to the south. The fog kept us from seeing the bridge. In spite of this and the wind, we made it back in 40 minutes.
We past what must have been a thousand water birds of all kinds. Alas, my camera was buried in my towed canoe with the trash. I was riding with Al Morris in his tandem kayak.
Brian Leavy and I stopped in and met Capt. Marti Bolster of Sea Tow. We tried to sell him that rope but he wasn’t buying. But we got better than that; he will help us with the trash when we get overloaded. Thanks Capt. Marti.
I stopped and saw Todd Miller at North Carolina Coastal Federation. He had been working on the White Oak River on one of their new land aquisitons and looked almost as bad as I did. He reported good progress toward the future plans for this property.
Next week, our continued exploration of Croatan’s Adventure to the Sea Trail