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Laid-back river trip turns into tough challenge

A group of canoers from the American Adventure Service Corps wait to be picked up at the end of a trip down the Pee Dee River. The group ran into a few river blocks along the way.

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Little Pee Dee River Trip Slideshow

Staff reports

Published: September 19, 2008

What was originally intended to be an easy, six-day, 75 mile canoe trip down the beautiful Little Pee Dee River, turned out to be one of the craziest challenges the youth members of The American Adventure Service Corps (TAASC) had ever encountered.
It all started a year ago when TAASC members were completing their 200-mile/10-day sixth and final leg of a 400-mile canoe expedition from Lenoir to the South Carolina coast on the Yadkin-Pee Dee River system. That expedition was a fundraiser for the Rainforest Action Network. Team members saw the Little Pee Dee merging into the Great Pee Dee and remarked that the group should return in June 2008 and paddle the Little Pee Dee. Joe Lovenshimer, a 2008 TAASC graduate, now headed for Brevard College in the fall, suggested that the Little Pee Dee trip be "laid back" compared to most TAASC expeditions, which can be quite arduous, long and challenging. Since 1998, the Morganton TAASC program has paddled five separate river systems from the NC mountains to the Atlantic Ocean as fundraisers for other causes. Each of those canoe expeditions have averaged about 400 miles in length and required 25 days of total paddling.
So instead of covering 25 to 55 miles per day as usual, Lovenshimer suggested the average mileage be about 15 per day, little did he, or anyone, know what was about to happen.
Prior to the trip, the rangers at Little Pee Dee River State Park near Dillon, S.C. were contacted regarding river conditions. TAASC was told that the river levels were now back to normal after last summer's draught and the S.C. canoe trail guidebook described the river as a quite beautiful and "runable" year-round. Apparently the guidebook was out of date.
As the group of 25 TAASC members departed from the put-in on June 9, spirits were high and everyone was excited about the upcoming six days. Not far down the river the first log jam was encountered. All 11 canoes, fully loaded with camping gear, food and water were hoisted over the logs. No big deal. After only about 3 miles, the group leaders, Dana Middleton and Lovenshimer, made the decision to camp on some level, grassy, high ground on river right.
Lovenshimer and Middleton have both been TAASC members for many years and at age 18 have become seasoned wilderness travelers. Lovenshimer joined TAASC in 2003 and Middleton joined in 1998. They have logged more than 1,000 miles of canoe expeditioning each along with numerous other climbing, backpacking, mountaineering, caving and community service experiences. Their backcountry judgment and decisions is quite solid. Their most recent, extended wilderness expedition was the 2006 South Nahanni River Expedition when they and 18 other TAASC members were flown deep into the Canadian sub-Arctic of the Northwest Territories and paddled out to civilization 28 days and 320 miles later through some of the most spectacular scenery on the planet.
No one in the group, Lovenshimer and Middleton or TAASC founder, Mike Fischesser, expected what was about to happen. The first few miles of log jams on day one were only a small taste of what was down river.
The next two full days consisted of hundreds of trees that had fallen completely across the river channel. The canoes had to be lifted, pushed, shoved, dragged and carried under, over, around and through all sorts of tree trunks, root systems, limbs and forks. The kids began rating the obstacles like river rapids with a scale ranging from class one to class 10. For 15 miles, the river appeared that a hurricane had recently blown down all the trees.
For two and a half days the 23- member team worked hard together to keep moving all boats and people downstream, never knowing when it would all end. It was very tiring work, compounded by the black water. No one could see the logs and limbs that were under water. Lots of legs and ankles were scratched and cut as people struggled and strained to lift fully loaded boats through each obstacle course.
Mike Fischesser was very impressed by the hard work ethic, determination and cheerful spirit of all the kids with ages ranging from 10 to 18, boys and girls, as they pushed themselves all day long. For more than 30 years Fischesser had worked with Scouting and Outward Bound before creating TAASC in 1996 in Morganton and he continues to be blown away by the abilities and positive expedition behavior of TAASC youth members.
Fischesser said, "Programs like Scouts, Girl Scouts and Outward Bound are great for kids, but by starting kids out at age 8 in TAASC and progressively building upon their challenges until age 18 has created a level of outdoor, experiential education unlike any other program in the United States. It's almost like these kids don't even know that these Little Pee Dee River trip hardships would nearly break a normal, sane person. The kids tackle these types of challenges and service projects with an undefeatable attitude and energy. Typically, even with supposedly mature adults, this type of continuous, physical and mentally stressful experience would lead to a lack of patience, temper flare-ups and arguments, often followed by lengthy, deep discussions afterwards. Rarely do TAASC members lose their temper or have an argument. At the end of each arduous day the kids happily and energetically set up camp, cook in a big group circle and sit around playing cards or telling stories 'til late into the night and then repeat it all over again the next day. It is truly unbelievable. In all my years of involvement in outdoor education, I have never seen anything quite like it."
At the end of day three the tree problems finally began to ease up and canoeing could begin. But now the problem was the mileage left to be done. Somehow the group would need to cover 60 miles in three days. This wouldn't have been too big of a deal had the trip consisted entirely of older members, ages 14 to 18, in shape with lots of experience. However, this time there were a lot of younger members along and the olders had to paddle a little harder than usual.
Day four and five ended with about 25 miles, a bit of night paddling under a waxing moon and late night camps. Day six was fairly easy with only 9 miles remaining before the take-out at S.C. Highway 701. The highlight of day six was a giant mud fight at the confluence of the Great and Little Pee Dee Rivers, the same site of the 2007 mud fight.
It was great to see the parents arrive around 3 p.m. Half the group went back to Morganton and the other half went to Folly Beach for a week at the beach, which is a well-deserved vacation after such a tough trip.
In July, 20 TAASC members will spend a month in the mountain ranges of Wyoming and Idaho, climbing, mountaineering and backpacking.
TAASC is a non-profit organization with programs in Morganton and Asheville, open to any youth, ages 8 to 18 who are willing to learn new skills and work hard on adventures and community service.

For information, call 733-4184 or visit www.taasc.net.
The following accounts, by TAASC members further describe the daily activities of the 2008 Little Pee Dee River trip:

Day 1 — by Michael Brazinski
After a six-hour bus ride with little AC and blistering heat, we finally arrived at the boat landing our group had been waiting for. We unloaded our canoes, water jugs, dry bags, and PFDs. Afterwards, we got our supplies and put them in our canoes with our partners. This is where our journey begins. We saw all different types of wildlife and creatures and of course, many bugs. It was at least two miles into the river when we got to our campsite, which was a very peaceful place. There we set up our tents, ate dinner and swam in the river for a bit. We then ended the night by looking at the moon and stars. Which was nothing more than you could ask for.

Day 2 — by Chip McKenney
As we started there were lots of trees everywhere. The river was quite sinuous, curvy and repetitively filled with trees every 100 yards. It is quite a hard process to get canoes, loaded with six days of gear, over logs in the middle of a river when there is no other way to go. By the time our group leaders declared a break of this savage torture, we were about ready to take a siesta. When we started to get out and find a lunch spot, we saw a clear-cut space in this pure nature. It had a big house with a picnic table and swing on it and a large field. This was very disappointing to us as it always is to see nature destroyed by man's existence and desire for luxuries beyond simplicity. Then we started to paddle and continued to run into logs all over the place. We were done with logs by the time we made it to camp. Camp was a simple storage area with an old jeep parked on it, dirt/gravel roads and a nice flat area to set our tents up on to sleep. We decided to come up with a rating system for the logs to cross and also methods to get across them. Sometimes we had to "submarine" our canoes under half a foot-high trees. Other times we had to hump over them. Sometimes we had to pick up the whole canoe and guide it over. But, when possible, we carried our canoes around the trees on the banks or dive around them with our excellent "Cioffoletti-style steering."

Day 3 — by Adam Carey
Day three was a good day. We left our tents as soon as it was too hot to stay sleeping. As we were packing, Austin Jones had the displeasure of realizing that fire ants had chewed through his stuff sack and into his cookies. After getting on the river and pulling canoes over logs, we came to a place where a tree made it impossible to go over or under in one movement. Instead we gathered a group of six or seven people and made a system of pushing, lifting ~ 4 feet up, and then seesawing over a big log. We pushed ahead and soon came to lunch at a small beach and afterwards went swimming. Fortunately for us this was the day that the logs ended. Soon we were paddling down a log-free river. We found a house to refill our water supply and four or five of us had fun using a rope swing. We paddled on into the afternoon and near 7 p.m. found camp at a beautiful sandy beach.

Day 4 — by Keidel Harroff
After a long night of endless "I have ants in my pants"! everyone was relieved when we finally escaped the pestering fire ant infested camp. Our destination was just eight miles beyond the horizon, our time was until noon, and the weather refused to turn to the dark side. That was just our luck, to start out with everyone paddling hard hoping to knock off 20 miles before dark. When we woke up that morning the only thing that worried us was getting Beans and Shelby to the take-out on time. We had to paddle eight by noon and whenever you paddle stern, but have no idea what you are doing with a complaining, huffy puffy paddling partner; that's easier said than done. No more trees attacking us, no more going over them five seconds later, going under sticks trying to avoid poison ivy. We had a smooth float ahead of us but all the bends and turns ruined all the fun. Eight miles passed by quickly we were there one hour before Bean's mom was! We passed 3.7 miles to the confluence of the Lumber River then a straight shoot 6.3 miles to the bridge where we were waiting for Bean's mom. When she arrived, we ditched a canoe and left it at some person's house where it will be waiting to be picked up. With all the miles ahead of us we couldn't afford to have a solo canoeist holding us back from pushing it to our limit. Beans was off to Colorado and we were off to a long day of sun, water and looking at the other person's back. Our next destination was a bridge 17 miles from Bean's and Shelby's take-out. After paddling for what seemed ages we started to think that the bridge was either invisible, part of Mike's imagination, or we were hallucinating and we already passed it or it was way more than 17 miles. After that age of the dinosaurs passed by I heard the most amazing sound: car horns! Once everyone regrouped and a short break, we started to paddle. Then to add a cherry on top of our day, it started to pour down buckets full of rain. No lightning, no thunder, just little beads of rain skipping and scampering on the surface of the water. When it finally started to slow down it struck us that we just finished our miles. But of course our ice cream sundae came toppling down because we couldn't find a campsite. After hours and hours of paddling, hours and hours of complaints, we found a campsite infested with frogs! Everyone was glad when we made camp; even I was. But we were even more psyched when we knocked 25-30 miles that day! I think I could have kept paddling. I did when I was sleeping. I woke up to find myself in paddling position, yelling we're running into a tree. We're running into a tree!

Day 5 — by Laurin Jennings
On the fifth day we woke up roasting in our tents. Bounding out of the raging inferno we found outside to be just as hot. We raced to the river. Diving in we saw Mike cleaning his boat. Flipping it upside down, we played in the air bubble underneath. Once righted again, kids jumped into the sinking vessel. Mike gathered us up for a group picture and a meeting after breakfast. We discussed the upcoming mud fight, barn syndrome and staying together. Once finished, we packed up our boats and set sail into the unknown.
That day we went about 25 miles only passing under one bridge. It was a very long day to make up for lost time crossing the trees. Jokes were played and fun was had in an attempt to make the miles pass easier. However, in the last 8 to 10 miles we stopped seeing campsites because the sides were lined with swamps. Between that stress of the horseflies and the prospect of paddling on into the night towards the take-out, tensions started to rise. We heard rumors of a so-called "punchbowl hill" from various fishermen, but couldn't tell where or what it was through the rambling southern dialect. The sun set and we paddled on. An hour into the darkness we saw a large beach on the left side of the river. A few people scouted it out deciding it was good. We began to put up tents and cook. Most people hit the sack pretty soon after since we had such a long day. A few of us olders stayed up and passed funny stories around the circle. Throughout the evening multiple "red necks" came to visit "Punchbowl Hill." Each time they found it to be occupied by a bunch of kids and left promptly. However, they kept us all entertained with the strong accents and what they had to say about 20 tents and 30 kids occupying their local hangout. Once they stopped streaming in and out the rest of us trudged to bed. Occasionally woken up by headlights coming down the road. We soon realized they were false alarms. We feel back asleep early. We were all exhausted.

Day 6 — by Lamara Parnell
After a long night of dealing with drunk red-necks and almost getting run over in our tents by their four-wheelers, we finally woke up on the last day of our expedition. It was hot when we began the day but I think everyone was ready to get home. It was planned to be a very laid-back day since we only had nine miles to do in five hours. We just so happened to be paddling against the tide so it felt like my partner and I were getting nowhere! We finally got to the confluence, which everyone (or at least most everyone) was waiting for. This was the point in the trip where the Little Pee Dee and the Great Pee Dee meet. This was also the site of the almighty mud fight. Although mud fighting is just the best way I would like to spend my day, some people just didn't find it interesting, so they just floated down the river. Now what kind of fun does floating sound like compared to mud fighting. I don't know, but moving on. After the confluence the river was really wide and there was a lot of motorboats. There were some nice motor boaters who slowed down, but there were other that sped up as they passed us. This created really bad waves and anyone who paddles knows it's not that easy to paddle with waves. After we got to the take-out and cleaned out all our boats, we had to wait for the drivers. I fell asleep in one of the canoes. Finally the drivers got there. After everything was loaded, we set off for home and the beach. This ended our Little Pee Dee expedition.