Big Creek Bridge at Lynchburg rd to Hanging Rock Access, June 26th 2012

Took Casey, Parker and Jonathon kayaking today down the Dan River.  Parker and Jonathon were 1st timers and did well although Parker went down several rapids backwards.  Parker raced me several times and he is pretty fast paddler too.  I was worried the water would be too low it was 1.4 all week but rained the night before and that morning it was a 1.67 ft at the river gauge at the Fransisco bridge.  This made the water just fine on the section from Lynchburg rd to Hanging Rock Access. (Very little parking at the bridge.) This section is good for beginners.  It takes about 2 hours and it is about 6 miles.

Fun memory:  The way to float a rapid is to lay striaght as a board, cross your feet, cross your arms.  Casey, Parker, Jonathon and I floated through a rapid in our life jackets.  Fun Day.

Hart Access to Lynchburg Rd (268) ( Dan River)

Today is supposed to be 102 degrees.  Dennis and I decided to beat the heat and get on the river early.  We got on the Dan river at Hart Access at 7:00am.  We left home at 6:15am.  The dam was releasing yesterday from 2-6 and we thought maybe we would still have some water since it takes 12 hours to reach the Fransisco river guage.  At 7:00 the gauge was 1.6 but by the time we got out at 10:00 the gauge said 1.5ft.  The temperature was 71 degrees at 7:00 but at 10:00 it was 92 degrees.

It was a fun day but the water was so low it was not as fun as it was the last time at 1.8ft.  I rubbed more rocks today than I have in the last 6 months.  I will wait until we have more water to do this section of the Dan river again.  Also the access at the Big Creek bridge is very steep and you have to paddle up the Big creek to get out and the creek was real low.  Only a small path was deep enough to get to the take out.