The sun has just risen over a line of trees and the mist still rolls across the Roanoke River.
I am waiting in a shuttle bus at a private boat landing in Halifax and with others onboard will be taken to the Weldon boat landing for the Roanoke River Ramble, a nine-mile kayak and canoe trip back to Halifax this morning.
It is a pristine fall day in Halifax County and Christina Wells, director of tourism and marketing for the Halifax Convention and Visitors Bureau says 133 paddlers have signed up.
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These paddlers come from Virginia and North and South Carolina. Some have paddled the river before. Some haven’t.
For some the day is to enjoy river. For some the day is to see the river for the first time.
“It’s just going to be a great fall day on the water,” said Dawn Kairis of Raleigh, who made the trip to Weldon with her daughter. “Any day on the water is a good day.”
A paddler prepares to hit the water.
Living in Raleigh for the past 25 years, this was her first visit to Halifax County and she was impressed with what she saw. “They’re the warmest, fuzziest people I’ve ever met,” she said of the bureau’s staff and the staff of Roanoke River Partners, which the Ramble benefits. “It’s very pretty here.”
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My goal for the day was to ride in a safety boat with Heber Coletrain, a volunteer with Roanoke River Partners. My trip will be cut in half because a film crew logging oral histories of the people on the river also want a ride and I gladly agree to the deal.
Waiting at the Weldon boat landing I talk with Wells, who tells me this is the fifth Ramble and was modeled after Paddle Days, an event held on the lower Roanoke River. “We wanted an event in the upper river. Pretty much anyone can do it,” she said, explaining after the rapids in Weldon the water flattens and makes for a smooth ride. “We want to show the beauty, the wildlife.”
Moody and his family prepare for the trip.
Carol Shields, of Roanoke River Partners, which is a 17-year-old grassroots organization made up of counties on the river, helped check in paddlers. “It’s a great recreation opportunity,” she said of the river. “It’s economic development in the community when they eat in your restaurants.”
Maurice Moody and his wife Latarrie are both from Halifax County but Mr. Moody confessed, “I’ve never been on the river, just fishing, never on a boat. I’m looking forward to it. I know it will be beautiful.”
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Coletrain is an experienced waterman, having traversed the river for 40 some years.
Although our trip is short, he points out the things that make the Roanoke such a tough river to navigate.
Swirling water could mean unseen rocks so caution is in order as we putter down the river, easily catching up to the paddlers.
Paddlers approach Halifax.
Along the way we see the remnants of a bridge, whether it was rail or something else, he doesn’t know, but plans to probe it further.
His wife drives me back to Halifax and we talk about the history of the county. The river is one place where time has basically stood still, the same when its original inhabitants lived off the land and the same when Cornwallis and Bloody Tarleton came through on their way to Yorktown.
In Halifax, Ken Wilson, of the Sons of the American Revolution, tells me more, how militia fired at Cornwallis from the banks of the river and Tarleton argued with locals during tea.
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The presence of Wilson, dressed in period militia garb and the presence of the musical group Chambergrass, made the Ramble a truly community event.
Chambergrass greets paddlers.
Boy scout troop 411 helped paddlers bring their boats ashore as Chambergrass greeted paddlers from a pier with bluegrass, many times playing Duelin’ Banjos from Deliverance for them.
Gene Minton, chair of the bureau, stepped off a canoe in Halifax. “We saw a bald eagle,” he said. “The river is just the way it was 200 years ago. We wanted to give them a great experience on the river that they would never forget and see its natural beauty. You can’t see that from a car.”
