By Tom Connor

Claude's Landing to Bobcat Landing
River Level (Near Denmark) CFS 650, Gage Aprox. 6 FT.
7 Kayaks, 4 Canoes, 14 People
Distance Traveled: 8.5 River Miles


A 20% chance of showers and a high of 70 greeted us as we met once again in the McDonalds parking lot at Hwy 321 and I-26. There would be fourteen of us on this leg of our "Taming of the South Fork" series. Four canoes and seven kayaks. This would be Pam's first trip down a river with the club in a canoe. Winkie steered and Pam was to be the "motor." Ed and Chris were in another canoe and Ben and Al were in the third with Rock in the fourth. Brian, Sheila, Linda, Kate, Deb, Sean and myself all drove kayaks.

We unloaded our gear and shuttled over to Bobcat Landing about 6.5 miles away. Some of us were lucky enough to ride inside Rock's truck while the rest had to tough it out in the back. It was a good ride. River level was about 6 feet and discharge about 650, cfs., so said the gage on the South Fork, near Denmark. Mainly the value of knowing this reading is to be able to compare it as described here with the height/flow on the day in the future when you want to run it again you can better gauge what to expect. It seamed to be a good level for the paddle. No pull-overs, a few strainers and only one portage (for some of us – more on that later).

Having Sean Kelsey on the trip is always a pleasure because of his fascination with snakes. He soon spotted a few and grabbed one to allow those that wished it to get a "feel" for the snakes. It seemed as if snakes were everywhere. Now before you get a negative opinion about this trip on the reptilian level, let me say that the snakes we saw (156 of them) were all mild mannered and easy going, even the four Cottonmouths. They didn’t mind us being there and we didn’t mind them. We had one little snake join us for a couple of hundred feet as he drifted along side our boats down the river. He bumped into a low branch and then swam off onto the bank, never to be seen again.

We came upon the Ness Bridge at Bill Self Landing (Hwy-70) and had a quick lunch and bathroom break before continuing on our way. I had held back to the rear of the group to get some video and heard a shout, "Tom, get the camera!" When I arrived at the scene I found Al and Ben swimming (not by choice) in the river. Their canoe had brushed a limb and one of them tried to stabilize the boat when the current caught it and turned it on it’s side. They were on the bank quickly and after Brian and others helped them pull the boat up on the bank, everything was okay. Another quick break and drying off period and we were off on the last segment of our trip.

The foliage had started to appear as well as the reptiles from their winter hibernation. We saw one small alligator resting on the bank between a few trees and many turtles. Soon we were at our take-out and heading for Dukes Bar-B-Que on Hwy-301 S just down the road from Bobcat Landing. Great food and good conversation.



Great trip! Good planning pays off. Since we had done so much beforehand on this one, it just ran smoothly and there wasn’t so many last minute requirements.