Prep for last day

Paddling for Pennies - Town of Clayton video

Day 2

The crew woke up around 2am and started paddling again. The goal was to be at Ferry Bridge in Goldsboro by 2pm. Grantham and Bentonville Fire Departments met them and fed them lunch. Had to huddle under the bridge to stay dry for a bit and then paddled on.

Day 1 continued

The crew landed in Smithfield around 7:00 Wednesday night. They were met with a warm meal and friends and family. The crew has gone from 8 to 5 people now. They stopped right at Hwy 95 last night around 9:30pm to sleep.

Day 1 - 2015 paddle

Half of the crew this morning at the put-in

Allen's home the next 5 days... his 5 year-old Rylee signed it (on the right) and so his 3 year-old Kaeli had to leave her mark (on the left). He said this kayak is a lot better than the one he used 2 years ago.

The crew put in off Falls of Neuse this morning around 12:45am. Allen texted at 6am and said he thought they were about 2 hours behind schedule. I spoke to Allen at 8am and they were at the dam. Unfortunately one of the crew had to stop his journey, a sad loss for the crew but he didn't want to hold everyone up. Because the river is low navigating is tougher than they anticipated. At 8am Allen estimated they were probably 1.5 hours behind schedule. Hoping that the nice weather today will allow them to get caught up on their time. They are anticipating being at the bridge at Hwy 42 in Clayton around 3pm.

Not sure which is better, the cold weather and good river conditions (like it was in 2013), or nice weather and a low river!