The Dan River Basin Association will welcome the spring on Saturday, April 5 by a seasonal switch—from its winter hikes to a spring float on the Dan from Moratock Park, in Danbury, NC to the confluence of Snow Creek, near Dodgetown Bridge. This easy, leisurely, family-friendly four-mile trip on a scenic, less-traveled section of the river will begin at 10:00 a.m.  Trip coordinator will be Will Truslow, President of the Dan River Basin Association.

 

Before heading downstream, outing participants will witness the start of a new educational project of the Association: the unveiling of a sign describing the benefit of planting trees along streams. This project was funded by CONTECH Stormwater Solutions with assistance from the American Canoe Association. 

 

“This will be the first of three such signs at places along the river,” said Brian Higgins, recently-appointed Project Manager for Nature and Heritage Tourism programs in DRBA’s Eden, NC office. Companion educational brochures will be available for participants. 

 

On the river, boaters should notice many harbingers of spring: red blooms emerging on the maple trees, new leaves on the columns of Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinqueflia), tiny blossoms snowing from the willow trees, ubiquitous bluets (Houstonia caerulea) gracing the low banks.

 

“In this section of the river,” said Forrest Altman, author of The Dan River Book, one can be close to nature in any season, “but it may be most exciting in spring, when one sees the first long-stemmed violets blooming or sees the first cloud of yellow butterflies hovering over its moist, muddy spawning place.”

 

A mile into the trip Flat Shoals Creek enters from the left.  It rises on the eastern flank of the easternmost of the Sauratown Mountains in Hanging Rock State Park, near the village of Flat Shoals.  Now, downstream, one will see many animal trails, some of which may be otter slides, escape routes of the playful otter in their forays into cornfields.

 

About three miles from Moratock Park, Bob Carter, Rockingham County Historian, has identified the Big Falls of the Dan, where James Davis built a mill in 1806.  Just before Dodgetown Bridge and the Snow Creek confluence, boaters pass under the rusty skeleton of Pitzer Steel Truss Bridge, built in 1918, from which the roadway has been removed.

 

Taking boats out at trip’s end, the group will use the bank with the permission of the Davis Chapel Historic Association, according to trip coordinator Will Truslow, who makes frequent calls on riparian landowners.

 

Participants in the outing should arrange to supply boat, paddles, life jackets, drinks and lunch, wearing water-shedding artificial fabric or wool (not cotton, and certainly not blue jeans) and providing a back-up change of clothing. All participants will be asked to sign a waiver.

           

To reach Moratock Park traveling on NC 8/89 from the north, turn left on Shepard Mill Road, crossing the bridge over the Dan.  Northbound on NC 8/89, turn right on Shepard Mill Road, crossing the bridge over the Dan.  At the end of the bridge, an unpaved drive on the right leads to the boat launch near the old iron furnace.

 

Meetings and outings of the Dan River Basin Association are free and open to the public.  For information about the outing, contact Will Truslow, Trip Coordinator, 336-547-1903, willtruslow@hotmail.com.

 

For questions about the outings program, contact Paul Johnson, Outings Chair, at 434-579-7599 or 434-476-2257, kpauljohnson@yahoo.com.  For information about the Dan River, communicate with Forrest Altman at 336-234-8556, forrestaltman@mebtel.net .