“How about 30 by 3:00?” I ask my wife Elaine as we launch from the Hartzog Ford Road low-water bridge.
“Aren’t you just a tad optimistic?” she poses back.
On many rivers, Elaine would be right to doubt our ability to hear or see 30 birds on a day’s float, especially given the not-so-prime-time of the year (July) for avian singing and the 10:30 a.m. launch.
But this is no ordinary river, for we are afloat on the South Fork of the New. An excursion where the thermometer reaches the lower to mid-80s – hot for the mountains of northwest North Carolina.
On point in the canoe’s bow, my job is to spot, listen, and watch for Vs in the streambed while my wife records the birds observed and helms the craft. Before many paddle dips into this daughter of the New – and eventually the Mississippi – I have called out our first bird of the day – a red-winged blackbird.
Soon a song sparrow lilts out its bubbling song from some shoreline alder; an indigo bunting, clad in its unmistakable deep purple, flits across the river; a red-eyed vireo belts out its “now you see me, now you don’t” song from a heavily wooded section of forest and a Carolina wren scolds us with its tea-kettly, tea-kettly chorus from a great rhododendron thicket.
We’re on our way – our destination the Elk Shoals Methodist Campground, seven miles downstream.
Jed Farrington, who operates Zaloo’s Canoes in Jefferson, is part of a family that has lived in these highlands since the 1700s.
The South Fork is very safe, according to Farrington, with only a few places where rapids as big as a Class II exist. And it’s beautiful: “Some of the most gorgeous pictures I have seen of the South Fork have been taken by photographers who climbed the mountains that overlook these bends.
“The final bend at the Methodist Campground is also where local people went to hunt elk back in the 1700s. The bend slopes very sharply down to the river forming a natural sandbar, and folks would herd the elk down to the water’s edge.”
Kevin Hining, a fisheries biologist for the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, rates the South Fork as one of the premier smallmouth bass rivers in the state. I catch and release several smallies, including one that measures 15 inches – a fine bronzeback anywhere in the Blue Ridge.
I’m in nature sensory overdrive, alternating among fishing, birding, paddling and picture taking – sometimes trying to do all four at once.
At 1:30, Elaine and I freeze in mid-stroke. As we round a bend, we spy three turkey hens with a baker’s dozen of poults. The wild turkeys are bird species number 26 for the day, and I boast that we are a cinch for 30. Elaine warns against male overconfidence. But in the next 10 minutes, an ovenbird, black-and-white warbler and a white-breasted nuthatch all sing out, and at 1:45, we hear an American redstart lisping “teetza, teetza, teetza” in the forest canopy.
We soon hear a Arcadian flycatcher, shouting out its diagnostic “flea-check,” and sure enough we are hopefully on our way to 40.
At 3:00, we record bird number 37, a yellow-billed cuckoo singing its “cucucu-cucucu,” but the species is to be our last for the day. We come to the end of our trip, Elk Shoals Methodist Campground where local folks are swimming and sunbathing. All that’s left is to pack our gear and decide which float to take next year on the South Fork of the New.
WHEN YOU GO
Canoe rental and stream conditions
Zaloo’s Canoes in Jefferson, 336-246-3066, 800-535-4027, zaloos.com
Travel Information
Alleghany County Chamber of Commerce in Sparta, 336-372-5473, 800-372-5473, sparta-nc.com.
Ashe County Chamber of Commerce in West Jefferson, 336-846-9550, 888-343-2743
State Park
New River State Park in Jefferson, 336-982-2587, ncsparks.net/neri.html
Conservation
National Committee for the New River in West Jefferson, 336-246-4871, ncnr.org
PROPER PRECAUTIONS
Any river in the Blue Ridge can become dangerous to float during high water, and novice paddlers can experience problems regardless of water levels. Some good general precautions:
• Call ahead to a canoe livery for stream conditions.
• Portage (carry the canoe around) any rapid that looks dangerous.
• Always wear a lifejacket. Elaine and I never take ours off while afloat.
• Ask canoe livery personnel for a lesson on basic strokes and, if you and yours are novices, what floats offer the easiest paddling.
