This 2.5 to 3.5 hour run includes the old mill. The mill damn has has withstood the engineering test of time. Its concrete bears shell fossils from the ancient river bed materials that were used to create the blocks of concrete. Year after year, decade after decade, the mill creek behind the dam becomes swollen with floodwaters from hurricanes, thunderstorms, and spring rains. The dam holds it all back. Today at 450 CFS, the mill creek between the dam and river is waist deep. The creek behind the dam is too deep for small children, but Desi, Sr. and Max pass the 4 children over the creek and we climb up to the grindstone at the top of the bank alongside the mill. This mill that provided grindstone to process the grains and corn for a long gone community. Double click the dam photo or the cog teeth photo for a detailed view. Rapids just past the mill are not difficult at 450 CFS. Harper, age 9, solos. Later we stop for lunch on the left bank at a point where the river bends sharp right and, on the left bank of that bend, there is a creek that flows over a cypress knees. Paul Sr finds a full deer skull with antlers that becomes the hood ornament for the canoe trailer. Paul believes the deer may have been fatally wounded by a hunter and instinctively ran toward the river, and died beside it. Wild azaleas are in full bloom. This river run has no development except the mill. Not one house. Not one deck. Once past the mill, you see what the Native Americans saw 1000 years ago.
Friday, April 20, 2007
Friday April 6, 2007: 450 CFS, Iron Bridge to Bottle Creek - Paul Sr, Desi, Desi Jr, Michael, Harper, Topie, Walt, Max
This 2.5 to 3.5 hour run includes the old mill. The mill damn has has withstood the engineering test of time. Its concrete bears shell fossils from the ancient river bed materials that were used to create the blocks of concrete. Year after year, decade after decade, the mill creek behind the dam becomes swollen with floodwaters from hurricanes, thunderstorms, and spring rains. The dam holds it all back. Today at 450 CFS, the mill creek between the dam and river is waist deep. The creek behind the dam is too deep for small children, but Desi, Sr. and Max pass the 4 children over the creek and we climb up to the grindstone at the top of the bank alongside the mill. This mill that provided grindstone to process the grains and corn for a long gone community. Double click the dam photo or the cog teeth photo for a detailed view. Rapids just past the mill are not difficult at 450 CFS. Harper, age 9, solos. Later we stop for lunch on the left bank at a point where the river bends sharp right and, on the left bank of that bend, there is a creek that flows over a cypress knees. Paul Sr finds a full deer skull with antlers that becomes the hood ornament for the canoe trailer. Paul believes the deer may have been fatally wounded by a hunter and instinctively ran toward the river, and died beside it. Wild azaleas are in full bloom. This river run has no development except the mill. Not one house. Not one deck. Once past the mill, you see what the Native Americans saw 1000 years ago.
