October 2022
My son Sam proposed that he and I have an adventure while I was visiting him in North Carolina--a kayaking trip.
"Sure!" I said. "Sounds like fun!"
Clearly I had no idea what I had agreed to.
The adventure started with a 120-mile south-southeast late afternoon drive to Wallace, North Carolina (population 3,300 and elevation 52 feet), where we had what turned out to be a very nice hotel for the night. On our way we passed field after field of ready-to-harvest cotton. What back-breaking labor THAT must be.
The next morning we got up very early and drove to the launch area of the Black River, arriving just before sunrise. The 50-mile-long Black River is a tributary of the Cape Fear River. A "blackwater" river is one with a lot of vegetation decay that releases tannins in the water, making the water appear dark and brackish. While this kind of water will not support most hardwood tree species, it does create a unique environment that can't be found in other places.
We walked around a bit, admiring the scenery and appreciating the stillness. For a tributary river, the water seemed eerily motionless--much more like a lake or pond than a river.
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