Upper Catawba - Riverbend Park to Lookout Shoals Dam

Today, we made it to the stretch of the Catawba River that we'd had to bail on at the beginning of the month. We were able to put in at the Riverbend Park, near Conover. We weren't able to start as planned because Duke Energy wasn't releasing enough water. We arrived at 8:30am to find Andy standing on rocks about a quarter way across the river. "Tide's out," he said.

Fortunately, a horn went off at 9am and a guy fishing gathered up his stuff and scampered up to the bank. Within a few minutes, we heard a rush of noise as Duke started running water through one of it's turbines (or whatever). With their re-licensing this year, Duke is supposed to be much better about these releases during the weekends to support recreational use of the river. So, we were to get started after all, and away we went:

The first couple miles, at this water level, had rocks to avoid but not enough to cause problems. We scraped over a few but nothing like the aggravation at Landsford Canal. We saw the bald eagle pair that nests nearby. Not much I can do picture-wise. The only picture I took has the bald eagle launching, but it's fuzzy enough to qualify for a "UFO In-Flight!" article.

At each island, we took the narrow path. At the second island, after the river bends south, we stopped at a sand bar to munch. After putting in again, Kathleen saw what she initially thought was an otter. We'd heard they were about. Upon our return, and discussion with Ranger Lori Owenby, it may have been a mink. No picture, but here are Kathleen and Andy at the bar:

After this, the trip shifted to placid, impounded river. Because of our "narrow side" of islands, we missed seeing the big rock outcrop to the wide side of the longest island. Oh well, it gives us something unique to look forward to when we return. For future reference, this island had 4 or 5 duck blinds along the narrow side. I'd not seen any around here before.

The trip duration was right at the 3.5 hours that Lori had predicted. According to the river map, it's a 9.5 mile trip. We loaded Andy's kayak into our truck at the Lookout Shoals Lake access and headed back to the start. Overall, nice trip. The temperature stayed in the upper 70's and cloudy. We were sprinkled upon occasionally but it was light and not really very noticable.