Hello from Eastern North Carolina

[bartcanoed]

I've been lurking and reading posts here for a while. Seems like there is a great bunch of people here with a lot of great information and stories, so I joined to continue to read all the great posts, and may be contribute a little to the community.

I grew up canoeing the rivers and lakes of western Michigan, but Uncle Sam brought me to North Carolina about 40 years ago. I've canoed all over the state, but the tripping opportunities are limited, so most of my canoeing is day tripping. But, any canoeing beats no canoeing, so I get out as much as I can. Our first canoe was our first luxury item we ever bought, a chopped fiberglass 17 footer from Sears. That canoe is long gone, but over years I've ended up with a small fleet; Nova Craft Prospector 18 and Bob Special both in Tuff Stuff; a couple of old Royalex boats, a Wenonah Spirit II and an OT Penobscot 16; just picked up an used UL Wenonah Wilderness in great condition, and finally a wood and canvas 1965 Aquacraft Camper. Not a bad canoe among them, but I do have my favorites.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Bart, welcome to site membership!

Feel free to ask any questions and to post messages, photos and videos, and to start threads, in our many forums. Please read Welcome to CanoeTripping and Site Rules! Also, because canoeing is a geographic sport, please add your location to the Account Details page in your profile, which will cause it to show under your avatar as a clickable map link. Many of the site's technical features are explained in Features: Help and How-To Running Thread. We look forward to your participation in our canoe community.

North Carolina is a wonderful state for canoe day tripping, which is what most of us do most of the time. Of course, we love to get trip reports about longer trips to more exotic places, and we have hundreds of those. For camping and day tripping in NC, I have always liked Merchants Millpond State Park.

 

[Neophyte]

Welcome! That’s quite the collection of canoes you have.

 

[bartcanoed]

Bart, welcome to site membership!

Feel free to ask any questions and to post messages, photos and videos, and to start threads, in our many forums. Please read Welcome to CanoeTripping and Site Rules! Also, because canoeing is a geographic sport, please add your location to the Account Details page in your profile, which will cause it to show under your avatar as a clickable map link. Many of the site's technical features are explained in Features: Help and How-To Running Thread. We look forward to your participation in our canoe community.

North Carolina is a wonderful state for canoe day tripping, which is what most of us do most of the time. Of course, we love to get trip reports about longer trips to more exotic places, and we have hundreds of those. For camping and day tripping in NC, I have always liked Merchants Millpond State Park.

View attachment 155500

Merchants Millpond is a beautiful place to paddle

 

[bartcanoed]

Welcome! That’s quite the collection of canoes you have.

Thanks, it took years to accumulate. I probably should pare it down, but kids and grandkids mean that they all get used now and then.

 

[Gamma1214]

Welcome, Bart. Kids & grandkids using them (even once in awhile) seems like a great reason to maintain a fleet.

Any tripping possibilities (multi-day) in the area?

 

[Neophyte]

Glad they’re getting used. You’re certainly not going to get encouragement to get rid of boats here.

 

[bartcanoed]

Welcome, Bart. Kids & grandkids using them (even once in awhile) seems like a great reason to maintain a fleet.

Any tripping possibilities (multi-day) in the area?

There are some. Roanoke River and Lumber River are two possibilities with public camp sites (some require reservations). Other rivers require creative solutions for camping, although the Cape Fear has an overnight you can do with canoe-in sites in Raven Rock State Park. Fontana Lake (reservoir) forms part of the southern border of Great Smokies National Park and there are backcountry sites that can be paddled to for a multi-day trip.

Speaking of grandkids, one of our favorites with them is an overnighter or two paddling out to one of the paddle-in sites on Bear Island (Hammocks Beach State Park). It's a barrier island that is about 4 miles long and has 14 sites spaced out the length of the island.