Canoeing The Neuse River

So for years whenever we would drive along Falls of Neuse Rd in Raleigh, NC we would cross the bridge and see the signs for canoe launch near the dam and think we should do that.  That would be so much fun with the girls...  So last year a friend of ours bought a groupon for a canoe or kayak trip down the river and we thought... huh...  they did it...  What are we waiting for???   So we worked out the logistics and took a trip down the river!

Logistics:  What cars do we take?  Where do we park?  What should we pack? 
The first issue was which cars to take.  We have a relatively new toyota minivan, and older Jeep Wrangler and a Dodge Dakota pick up truck.  First we thought we would take the truck...so we got the canoe (a beast and relic back from the 70s) and tried to put it in the truck.  It was too long, the canoe, not the truck, unfortunately! So now we had to cover the roof rack of the minivan with towels and padding to protect it.  Once that was completed we needed to put the canoe on the van roof.  A tricky proposition as the canoe is a beast and a relic and aluminium (read heavy).  In fact, this canoe was the cause of my very first mammogram after I kind of dropped it on my boob when we canoed on Falls Lake.  The bruise left a "lump".  That incident did not leave me eager to try again...  But the children were excited and really, I go to the gym now, I should be able to pick up this silly canoe!  Yeah!  Success!  We also tested it out on top of the jeep, easy peasy!

So now we were all loaded up with canoes.  I packed a cooler with lunch, drinks, snacks etc.  We double ziplocked our electronics (camera and phone) and then packed the usual towels, lifejackets, cushions, fishing poles etc.  We put on our bathing suits and we were ready to go!

Now we needed to park on car at the take out location.  There is a company (Paddlecreek) here in Raleigh that controls the pull out location on Capital Blvd.  All you need to do is go into the PaddleCreek store and ask for a permit to park at the take out and there you go!  The take out is just up the road from the store.  We went to the store, bought our pass and then parked the Jeep.  Now off we went to the put in.  You put in at the dam on Falls of Neuse Rd.  The put in used to be right near the dam but with the new greenway path they moved it up the road maybe 100ft.  That was a tad confusing but a quick call to paddle creek and all was cleared up.

There were a bunch of fishermen in the river as we put in.  Ashley got a kick out of that as she LOVES to fish...go figure!  I think they got a kick out of us as I still lack a certain amount of balance and everyone was laughing, myself included, as I attempted to get into the front of the canoe without tipping it and falling in the drink.  Once in the trip down the river was fantastic.  There was not a whole lot of paddling as the current pushed us at a nice leisurely pace.  The girls tried to do some paddling too and we will be getting some smaller paddles before we go again but we didn't want to paddle too much or the trip would have been over too fast.  There were a good number of sandy spots that we could pull our canoe out on.  We stopped for lunch and a couple more times for snacks as well.  The girls had a blast splashing around in the water and riding the current with their life jackets as tubes.

Lunch stop

The strangest part of the trip was knowing that we were in the middle of town!  Sometimes you can see the houses right off the river and the greenway but much of the time you could almost forget that you were still in civilization.  That feeling was helped along by the fact that we saw both woodchucks and a deer.  Our trip took a wonderful 3 hours.  Our friends that went on the paddle creek trip said theirs took 1.5 hours but they were instructed not to stop.  I do not think our family would have had as good a time if we couldn't stop and explore.

Riding the currents

So get going people! The weather is getting better, start planning your family trips outside!  Invite us to come.  Life is always more fun when you spend it with friends and family going on adventures!  Get outside, be active, be fit, be a better you.