- Altamaha Altimeter
- Maine’s Machias, a Good “Bad Run of River”
- Windstorm on the Rio Grande
- Welcome to South Carolina’s Black
- Condo Wild, a Triplet Report
- TalakPea Means “Canoe it”: The Pea-Choctawhatchee
- North Carolina’s Black River: The Trip Back
- Georgia in June? The Flint
- Turning Big Rivers into Little Ones: The Satilla
Category Archives: Trip reports
Altamaha Altimeter
Plan E In Slickrock Expedition days I always had more than one river in mind when I scheduled a canoe trip. Plan A was the advertised trip—say a week on Oregon’s Grande Ronde River, with the group meeting in Boise, … Continue reading
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Tagged Altamaha River Georgia, canoe camping, meandering rivers
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Maine’s Machias, a Good “Bad Run of River”
Maine’s Machias River has its start about 30 miles northeast of Bangor as the crow flies, and it runs for 75 miles to the Atlantic though a part of Maine known as “Downeast” by those who live there—a region characterized … Continue reading
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Tagged blackwater, canoe camping, Machias River, Maine, splash dams, whitewater canoeing
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Windstorm on the Rio Grande
I left Cullowhee for Big Bend National Park, in Texas, on November 7, 2022, with three canoes strapped on top of the truck and drybags of food and camping gear stowed inside. Bobby Simpson and Pat Stone were to be … Continue reading
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Tagged Big Bend National Park, Boquillas Canyon, Rio Grande, river canoeing
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Welcome to South Carolina’s Black
After canoeing North Carolina’s Black River in July last year with Paul Ferguson and Bobby Simpson, I thought it couldn’t be matched for a southeastern river trip—until this July when I canoed South Carolina’s Black, an entirely separate stream. My … Continue reading
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Tagged Black River South Carolina, canoeing, South Carolina state parks
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Condo Wild, a Triplet Report
Every spring for a week or more Becky and I travel to Florida’s Amelia Island, where, like song birds that return to the same nesting site each year, we rent the same condo over and over again. Amelia is the state’s … Continue reading
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Tagged Amelia Island, gopher tortoises, Griffis Fish Camp
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TalakPea Means “Canoe it”: The Pea-Choctawhatchee
It was the perfect storm. It was not the perfect place to camp in the storm. Four of us—Bobby Simpson, Pat Stone, my son Henry, and I—had launched that morning on the Pea River in the town of Elba, Alabama, … Continue reading
North Carolina’s Black River: The Trip Back
I was driving home from a canoe trip on the Black River in eastern North Carolina when Thoreau’s point-blank assessment of the human condition came to mind: “The mass of men live lives of quiet desperation.” The famous line is … Continue reading
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Tagged bald cypress trees, Black River, canoes, Christopher Columbus, Coharie Indians, Friends of Sampson County Waterways
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Georgia in June? The Flint
“GA in June?” Monroe asked when he heard I was packing for a canoe trip on the Flint River: “Sounds snakey and buggy.” He had emailed me an article about Montana’s Blackfoot River, knowing I used to run trips there, … Continue reading
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Tagged canoeing, Flint River, Georgia, Greek myth
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Turning Big Rivers into Little Ones: The Satilla
“Wherever there is a channel for water, there is a road for the canoe.” Thoreau, 1857 When canoeing big Western rivers, such as the Colorado in the Grand Canyon, Idaho’s Salmon, Oregon’s Rogue, I watch rafters and kayakers head into … Continue reading
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Tagged Alabaha River, canoeing, Deep Bend Campground, Georgia's Satilla River
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