Once a year my sister Cathy and I try to take a kayaking trip together. This year we decided to paddle the Roanoke River from its start in Salem, Virginia to the Albemarle Sound, around 410 miles away. I am a retired paralegal and Cathy works as a school photographer, so she has the summer months off. We are both well into our 60’s and reasonably healthy. I live in Pennsylvania in the Pocono Mountains and Cathy lives in New Jersey.
The river starts at the confluence of the North and South Branches, so we began our journey just upriver from the confluence at Salem, Virginia. My husband Ed drove us the 7 or so hours from home and dropped us off after helping unload the car. This year is marked by historic drought conditions, so the water levels were very low. We spent the first few days hopping in and out of our boats dragging, pushing and cajoling them over rocks in search of the deepest pockets that we could find to get the boats through. The weather was warm and the water cool so it felt good to wade through the water. I had hip replacement surgery 6 months ago, so my new hip was seriously put to the test and performed beautifully. Yay!
After three or four days on the river, we spent a couple of days in the City of Roanoke, ie hotel, showers, restaurant meals, etc and hit the river two days later. In a short time the river widened and we found ourselves paddling in a big lake…. lots of beautiful homes and folks out enjoying themselves waterskiing, jet skiing and fishing. After the big lake, the river narrowed again and the next section is called the Staunton River. This section is marked by a few rapids (we had an incident with a flipped boat….first time in 20 years that happened!) and lots of randomly placed sandbars/shoals. One minute you’re paddling merrily along and the next you’re grounded on a sandbar. Where does all that sand come from?
The best part of the river was the section that began at the Tusca landing shelter. What a treat the shelter was! From there on, the river was wide and slow, with high banks and a few boat ramps to explore. We saw very few people, just some fishermen. A couple of days after the Tusca landing shelter, we stayed at the Bluffs shelter. I was a little worried about the name “Bluffs” because I was afraid it would be a high steep climb to the shelter. I was right. I think I counted 88 steps to the top. Hauling ourselves and our gear up those steps in the 90 plus degree heat was no fun, but we just took our time and got the job done. The effort was totally worth it. It was like staying in a tree house! We were so happy there, we stayed an extra day. The second night, while we were tucked away all safe and sound in the shelter we were rewarded with an enormous thunderstorm rolling through. It was awesome.
After the Bluffs, we stayed on the Conine platform. It’s a shame we didn’t stay there very long because of the extreme heat. We woke up early and left in a hurry to take advantage of an early paddle before the heat of the day set in. It’s a great shelter with an easy couple of steps from the river.
This trip, which lasted exactly one month, left us with some great memories. We saw the most amazing long staircases leading down to the water from private homes. People around here really prioritize getting access to the river. Standouts to me were the trumpet vines everywhere, the turtles, the birds, the huge gar, the cypress trees and their “knees”, cows in the water, and hungry raccoons. I could go on and on. We were serenaded by the most beautiful little indigo bunting at lunch time one day. The owls were amazing almost every single night and even sometimes during the day. One night in the tent, both the stars and the fireflies were so plentiful that I couldn’t tell which was which. It was truly magical; like being inside a fairy book.
All rivers have beautiful scenery and this one was no different. The thing that set the Roanoke apart from other rivers was the people that we encountered. From the fishermen who respectfully ignored our little stealth campsites to the Uber drivers who went out of their way to accommodate us and our wet gear, to the kind people who gave us rides and offered cold drinks. We met a couple who guided us through the rapids by Cat Rock, a lady who helped drag our boats up a steep ramp, a police officer who promised to keep an eye on us overnight, while we camped at a boat ramp. We were invited to a family cookout and were given a long ride by a new friend who took a couple of hours off of work to help us out. We also met a man with a monkey inside a Dollar General Store. A monkey!
The original goal was to reach the Sound, but with the extreme heat and logistics of our ride home we were happy to end the trip at the second Jamesville boat ramp, about 17 or 18 miles short of our goal. Cathy’s husband John picked us up at the ramp on the 4th of July and off we went home in time to watch the fireworks.
It was all in all a great trip and I hope to encourage everyone to get out there and go for it!
Beth Quinn