Day Five - Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Day Five – Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Dutch Gap Conservation Area to Three Mile Reach, 22 miles

Outgoing tide started early this day, unfortunately I missed most of it between breaking camp and then paddling the two miles back to the main river channel. I did catch the end of the outgoing tide and made good headway until noon. The afternoon was another tough one, fighting against the tide and wind.

As I paddled, I realized that the trip was finally developing a rhythm of its own. The first few days seemed like a series of day trips, particularly with the wedding and night in the B&B on Saturday. Then Monday was a series of challenges to check off – dam portage, whitewater, other portages, cover distance to camp. Tuesday I could really feel the rhythm; break camp and catch the out flowing tide, slog against the tide in the afternoon and think I was done in, rest up and snack in the afternoon then catch a second wind and cover some more distance. This trip really taught me the importance of pace and energy. I could feel the impact of running low on fuel. It was essential to eat throughout the day and stay hydrated. When I began feeling run down I would find a spot to stop, stretch for a few minutes, have a snack, maybe walk around and then hit the water again refreshed. For the most part, my rest breaks were short – 20 minutes or less, but during those times when I was most worn out I might stop every 90 minutes of paddling. At other times, I could stay in the boat for 3 hours with no ill effects. While there was magic and enjoyable moments every day, Day 5 really brightened for me. Perhaps the weather helped as the skies cleared toward afternoon with only occasional showers.

Many interesting sights on Day Five as the river began to widen. I saw two separate eagles early in the morning as well as five white-tail deer that were running along a game trail on the side of a steep bank on the river. There were osprey everywhere. It seemed that there was a nest on every daymark.


Mid-morning I watched what I knew at the time would be one of my lasting memories of the trip. There was a shallow bay to my left with cypress trees growing in the water. Further down was a large dead tree hanging over the flats – what I would consider a perfect “Eagle Tree” for hunting but this one had an osprey nest in it. I had the privilege of watching some aerial combat between two osprey and two bald eagles. It was not clear if the eagles were attacking the osprey nest or if they were jousting for territory, but they repeatedly would dive at each other, the osprey trying to push the eagles downriver and the eagles seemingly trying to get closer to the large dead tree. The eagles finally flew off to the shoreline, so I chalked the victory up to the osprey.

Some of the many osprey nests that I saw were on poles that appeared to have high-power lights on them. I have no idea what their purpose would be as it would seem an odd place to try and light either the shore or the channel. The battle between man and the river is apparent in this section. While there are few houses, the paddler is never far from a daymark or buoy. The cut offs are all manmade solutions to avoid the meandering and often shallow oxbows. But where the cuts are, there is evidence of the river trying to still work its way into the oxbows, such as the high eroded cliff at the Turkey Island channel.


After clearing skies most of the morning, the rain started again while I approached and stopped at City Point about 10 a.m. I ate a quick snack, used the port-a-john and checked in with Kate. With the rain and a NW wind still blowing, I decided to cross to the north bank and stay in the lee of the windward shore. It helped a little, but the tide was starting to turn by the time I got over to the north shore. Just before City Point, the container ship that I had seen the day before loading at the Richmond Deep Water Port passed me. Other than the few mentioned above, I had seen no other paddlers the entire trip. In fact, there had been very little boat traffic. Despite there being may houses along the river, both old and new, I had seen absolutely no one outside in any of the yards.

About noon I stopped on the grounds of Berkley Plantation, one of the impressive James River Plantations that is now open to tourists. I fielded lots of questions from people touring the grounds as I ate my lunch. There was a boy about nine years old with an English accent that was pointing up river and talking about John Smith and Jamestown. I told him that Jamestown was the other way, which led to a discussion about my trip with his family. He was there with his parents and younger sister, on a Virginia history vacation. They were obviously English, but now live in New York and the boy had been learning about Jamestown in school recently. They were headed to Williamsburg on Wednesday and then Jamestown on Thursday, so I told them to look for me since that matched my timeline as well.

The rest and visit pumped me up. It made me realize how much I feed off of other people’s energy and enjoy sharing with others the things I am doing and experiencing. While I left Berkley renewed, it did not take long for the 2 ½ hour early afternoon paddle to turn into one of the toughest stretches physically of the trip thus far. The wind picked up and swung from the Northeast which meant it was blowing directly upriver. The tide was also set against me. I would estimate the wind was 15mph sustained with higher gusts, definitely the strongest I had experienced during the trip. With the wind and tide working against me, my progress was slowed to 1 or maybe 1 ½ knots. I could see the public fishing pier across from Windmill Point from some distance but it seemed to take forever to get there.

As I battled the wind and tide, I tried singing songs and other than “Poetry” by Walt Wilkins I could not sing any other songs through completely. It is funny, because you give me a couple bars and the first words and I’m good, but struggle with no prompts. I ended up singing lots of snippets of different songs, kind of my favorite songs medley. Ed emailed before I left to “enjoy every day.” I had enjoyed parts of each day and was definitely not sick of the journey, but the stress level was higher than I imagined. My skills were there, but I had been really concentrating on not making a “big” mistake. This journey was one of the most challenging things that I’ve done in my life; which really speaks more to how easy my life has been than to the difficulty of the journey.

I am so blessed to be in a position (health, personally, professionally, financially) where I could pull off a trip like this. Not to mention the incredible blessing of living in a country where this freedom of travel is possible. The trip is solo, but I certainly appreciated that it is only with a strong support system that I was able to plan and execute this trip. From Kate and Emma who have supported me despite their reservations, to other family and friends, to my paddling coaches and paddling buddies that have helped me develop the skills needed for this undertaking.

When I finally got there, one of the two guys fishing from the pier despite the weather told me that they had been watching my struggles and were wondering if I would make it or turn back. He also pointed out a orange/tan colored snake that had just swum up on the area of shore that was best to land a kayak. I decided to paddle around a point and into a cut that was somewhat behind the pier area. I had to push a deadfall out of the way, but was able to get the kayak up onto a slightly higher spot and tie it off to a nearby tree. I then had to make my way through some brambles to get back over to the parking area which also had restrooms and a bench with a small covering. I tried to check in, but had no cell service. Hiked up a trail that leads to some wooden overlooks of the river and debated just calling it a day and hauling my gear up the hill and steps to set up camp. The park did not close until dark though, and there seemed to be a lot of traffic coming in and out, not all of the traffic with a clear purpose. The place seemed a little sketchy, but I was not ready to get back on the water with the wind and tide still against me. I decided to hike up the hill toward the main road and see if I could get a cell signal. About a mile up, I hit an okay spot and got a call through to my mom. It was hard to communicate as the signal was still weak but I was able to tell her where I was, that I planned to paddle a few more miles on the north bank and that I was not sure if I would be able to call anyone that night.

About 4 pm I decided to get back on the water. The wind was still blowing but not as strong, and the tide had begun to turn in my favor. The river takes a sharp right-hand bend just past the fishing pier, so I knew that I would be protected from the wind once I cut the bay and made the windward shore. The straight stretch following this bend is called Three Mile Reach and about half way down the reach I found a good camp spot. Behind a duck blind there was a sandy beach with a level area and then a sloping hill up to a farm. The beach was not posted and all the buildings were a long way off. It seemed unlikely that anyone would notice my presence or mind if they did.


Once again, the evening left me wishing that I had scouted more. The tide was headed out which would make for easy paddling, I had gotten my second wind and there were a couple hours of daylight left. Since, I did not know what the next five miles held for camping spots though, I decided to hole up for the night. It was a great spot and I enjoyed the sand and views across the river as the sun set. After making camp, a tug pushing six barges full of coal dust or something similar passed me going downriver. I turned in for the evening looking forward to tomorrow’s paddle and particularly my next days’ intended end point, a campground just up from the mouth of the Chickahominy River. After three solid days of rain, a hot shower and dry clothes was something to which I could look forward.