Solo trip on the Pocaty River,  May 30,  2004

I paddled the Pocaty River West of the Blackwater Road put in and made a round trip to the Nature Conservancy's observation deck at the mouth of the Pocaty where it meets the North Landing River.  I did not do much exploring in the various fingers of water off the main river as I was saving that for a future trip with my friend Bill and his son Billy.  I did not have a map with me so I memorized my turns and various landmarks to find my way back.  It is not an extremely complex river but things always look different on the return trip.  I managed it with only one wrong turn.  There was a huge tree standing in the river which had it's upper part hanging down as if it were struck by lightening.  This was my main landmark as the fallen tree top hung and pointed the direction in which to get back.  It was cool and I tried to get a picture but the camera was not cooperating.  Next time I will be bringing a map for exploring.  My neighbor John and his son Wesley took me up the Pocaty one Saturday in the folding boat.  That was earlier this year.  That helped because I knew some of the river from that trip.

The day varied between overcast and sunny.  The wind was minimal.

You can see some of the toppled trees courtesy of Hurricane Isabel on the right side of this picture.

Lots of turtles were sunning during my paddle.  Caught this one before he could slip into the water.

This is one of the few areas on the river where you can see that you are still within an arm's reach of civilization (well except for the occasional piece of river trash or another boat or....ah...forget it,  you know what I mean).  There is a longer finger of water that has a view of the this same corn field.  The farmland is on the South side of the river closest to Blackwater Road.  Most of the land surrounding this river is preserve area.

The middle mile or so of this river is the prettiest with calm water and forest land surrounding it.