Paddlers delight in newly swollen rivers

By today, waters could be safe for trip

Michael Williams and Michael Carter hopped out of Carter's Subaru Outback, a pair of brightly colored kayaks strapped to its roof, and surveyed the Haw River just below U.S. 64 in Chatham County on Saturday afternoon. Williams, who grew up on West Virginia's New River and has paddled for most of his 35 years, stared into the swift, frothy current rife with bobbing 20-foot logs.

"Going in?"

His answer was instant. "Nope."

Hanna's power proved too much even for the most experienced of Triangle paddlers, a bunch chomping to get out on the river after two years of drought. But with about 26,000 cubic feet of water per second passing the U.S. Geological Survey gauge just upstream in Bynum -- most paddlers consider 1,000 cubic feet per second adequate on the Haw -- the risks in the wake of Hanna outstripped the thrills Saturday.

Today, though, could be a different matter.

"Potentially, you could have a good run Sunday," said Paul Ferguson, Raleigh-based author of "Paddling Eastern North Carolina."

Ferguson said local rivers that typically run too low to paddle this time of year could be in rare form today, even for casual paddlers.

"The Eno could be in good shape Sunday," said Ferguson. A stretch particularly friendly to the casual paddler -- "those comfortable paddling Class 1 and 2 water" -- between Pleasant Green Road in Orange County and Durham's West Point on the Eno city park, could be an especially good option, Ferguson said. Upper portions of the Haw could likewise be good for recreational paddlers.

More-experienced paddlers, he said, should be able to seek thrills on smaller rivers that rarely get paddled, including the Little and Flat rivers in northern Durham County and the Rocky River in Chatham and Lee counties.

Ferguson says paddlers should check the U.S. Geological Survey's Web site for daily streamflow data (http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nc/nwis/rt) before heading out. Unfortunately, that site provides only streamflow numbers; it doesn't indicate whether those numbers mean a river is safe to run. For that, he says, you need a guidebook.