We never made it folks! We had to abort the trip and paddle back to our put in at Comfort. This will show how the river is completely blocked by trees blown down by hurricanes over the years.
From our paddles in previous years we believe this condition exists all the way down to about where the cotton gin is.
Here is a picture of our lovely Trent River as we started out at Comfort. It is beautiful. It should be like this all the way to New Bern so everyone can enjoy this exquisite river. Unfortunately hurricanes have blown down massive trees of all sizes across the river. These completely block the river to all forms of navigation.
Jones County is to be commended to have obtained a Grant to clear the river of these obstructions so all may enjoy the beauty of this lovely river. We understand this clearance will begin this fall. It is too much for us volunteers to handle. This as a job for the professionals.
As we paddled down the river we came we upon these fishermen. Last week they had a five pound bass.
We have been picking up all litter and trash. That is a boat. We could not get that!
This is our first complete blockage to navigation of any kind. We had to get out and drag our boats over a sand bar on the right.
It looked clear ahead so we struggled to get over this one. That is floating duck weed on
the surface.
we could see was more of the same. It was noon time and we had gone only one mile downstream.
We realized we would never get to Chinquapin Chapel Road bridge where we had left our
shuttle vehicle. We ate lunch here and then began our paddle back upstream.
That is Jim Niedermeyer of Hubert and Elmer Eddy of Swansboro on the right in the woods
scouting the river below this horrible log jam.
That is Tom Fineco of River Bend, New Bern, helping Jim with his trash loaded canoe to get it over this huge log completely blocking the river. This is an old log. It is sawed off at each end. This was done on a previous tree removal operation.
High water picked it up and it is now blocking the entire river again. We hope those clearing the river under this new Grant will not leave cut trees where high water can pick the up only to clog the river again.
Small six foot openings like those left on the White Oak River are also very unsatisfactory. They become clogged up with debris with the next flush of high water. With a very wide opening we assure all there will be plenty of woody debris left for the macro and micro invertebrates.
We look forward to the day when we can paddle from Pleasant Hill to Trenton with no obstructions. We stand ready to help Jones County to make this possible any way we can.
Ed Gruca of Emerald Isle also was on this trip. He took all these beautiful pictures. We also thank Smurf Murphy for the use of his ramp and for disposing of the four bags of trash for us.
Elmer Eddy
Elmer, The White Oak River Trashman
Stewards of The White Oak River Basin
101 River Reach Drive West,
Swansboro, NC. 28584
910-389-4588 e-mail: elmer@whiteoakstewards.org
Please visit our website: http://www.whiteoakstewards.org/
“If no one litters, there will be no litter!”
