Roanoke River and Conine Creek 8-7-11

We set out this morning with cloudy minds under a cloudy sky. A short drive to Williamston and we set off on the Roanoke river again. Determined to see the Conine camping platform we planned on paddling east on the Roanoke then a west on the Conine. A pretty big loop. We did the 6 mile paddle to the camping platform with no problems. Definitely a place I will camp at in the fall or winter. The four or five mile paddle down the Conine was a bit more problematic. It started of relatively clear but got progressively harder and harder to navigate. We had to get out of the canoe four or five times to either go over or around fallen trees. I was afraid we were going to hit a logjam under the highway seventeen bridge but the Conine let us pass. Just barley. So at this point we had paddled ten to twelve miles of easy to very difficult and time consuming waterways and we looked like a couple of mud farmers. Now the whole idea of taking the Conine was to travel with the flow of the Roanoke the whole trip but when we finally passed under highway seventeen and took our left on the Roanoke the wind that had been picking up steadily for hours was blowing right in our face which made it almost seem like we were going against the flow. Never had so much fun doing such hard work. We saw what I am assuming is the same pair of bald eagles from last week. Wild scuppernong grapes were everywhere.
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