Paddlers Enjoy a Day on the Mayo

DRBA's 1st Saturday outing for the month of July was a huge success as over 50 paddlers showed up to enjoy a float on the Mayo River in Rockingham County, NC. The group paddled six miles from Anglin Mill to the 770 bridge below Stoneville. Along the way, trip coordinators T & Lindley Butler pointed out historic Native American fish wiers dating back over 1,000 years.


Everyone enjoyed lunch on a rocky island in the Mayo before finishing their journey.


DRBA 1st Saturday outings are free and open to the public, additional 3rd Saturday outings are available exclusively for members. For more information on outings and about becoming a DRBA member, visit www.danriver.org.

Hikers Visit Rhododendron Trail

The new Richard P. Gravely, Jr. Nature Preserve in Ridgeway has been open since April and getting quite a bit of use too! Now hikers have another reason to enjoy the preserve. Rhododendron Trail offers a challenging one mile hike down switchbacks and along the Smith River. The narrow path leads visitors through a wide variety of lush ferns and then through a tunnel of Rhododendrons.


Eileen Bourne (below) of the Martinsville-Henry County Master Gardeners shows Rhododendron blooms to a group of hikers.


One of the highlights of the hike is a bench overlooking the Smith River where visitors can relax and listen to the sounds of birds, leaves blowing in the breeze, and flowing water.

The Richard P. Gravely, Jr. Nature Preserve is located on Eggleston Falls Road in Ridgeway Virginia. The preserve, funded partially by a grant from the Harvest Foundation, is open year round and admission is free. For more information on the preserve and other natural areas in Martinsville and Henry County, call Jennifer Doss at 276-634-2545.

Volunteers Needed at Jamison's Mill

Friends of Philpott will host a volunteer workday on July 12th at Jamison's Mill Park in Henry, VA. The group will meet at 9 am.

Work will entail corridor clearing like blowing leaves, cutting saplings, moving fallen trees to make way for the Ditch Witch and then hand finishing work.

Please Wear: work boots, gloves, long pants, and helmet or hard hat (if you have one)

Tools needed include gas powered blowers and loppers. Bring a snack and water too please.

If a large number of volunteers signs up for this workday, Linda Drage will provide hot dogs and drinks for everyone. Please RSVP to Linda Drage at ldrage@comcast.net.

Bike Tour for Great Expectations

Help teenagers in the foster care system move from
the margins to the mainstream!

Join us in welcoming Dr. Glenn DuBois,
Chancellor of the Virginia Community College System,
when he stops at Patrick Henry COmmunity College

during his Great Expectations Summer Bike Tour.

Thursday, July 3, 2 p.m.
Walker Fine Arts/Student Center

Great Expectations is a new transitional
education program for foster care youth.
Learn more at http://www.greatexpectations.vccs.edu/

Geocache Fun

Nearly 30 eager treasure hunters of all ages gathered at the Richard P. Gravely, Jr. Nature Preserve in Ridgeway to participate in the Virginia Museum of Natural History's (VMNH) first Geocache Day. The program was led by Robin Jensen of VMNH, and designed to teach families how to enjoy this fun sport.

Geocaching is an international game played using a hand held Global Positioning System, more commonly known as a GPS. Cache seekers, can simply log onto the website www.geocaching.com to find a cache nearby and go treasure hunting. Over 600,000 caches can be found across the globe, and 1,600 of those are within 50 miles of Martinsville!

After the initial purchase of a GPS unit there is no other cost to participate in the game, which makes it a popular form of entertainment for families. The sport is also good for tourism, as it encorages travelers to visit smaller towns and lesser known communities.

The Calbanese Family has been Geocaching together for several years. Below they are shown reading their first clue of the day.


Others who had never Geocached before recieved instruction on how to operate the GPS unit from Robin Jensen.


I followed the father-son duo: Brad and Connor Kinkema of Henry County as they embarked on their first Geocaching adventure together. It took a little practice to learn how to operate the GPS, but soon they were on their way to the first cache! Connor found a tiny container called a mini-cache. Inside the small aluminum container was a tiny roll of paper listing all the names of people who have found this particular cache. Brad added their names to the list of successful cachers and Connor re-hid the cache making sure to put it back exactly the way he had found it.


For the next cache, Brad and Connor worked with fellow cacher, T Butler of Reidsville. After about 15 minutes of hiking through the beautiful woods of the nature preserve, the group found the next cache. This box was larger and contained an assortment of items including a ring, AAA decal, a key chain, small toys, and a note book. When a cache like this is found the cache seeker can take an item to keep, and leave another treat in the box for others to find. All the cache seekers learned that candy, food and fragrant items are not allowed in caches because it might attract animals and make them sick. Connor did not have a trinket to put in the cache this time, but said that he would visit again another day to make the trade. The cache seekers all signed their names in the note book and Connor hid the cache back in the secret home.


The last cache of the day was a Puzzle Cache and required a little more thinking. Brad, Connor, and other cachers explored the historic Burgess cemetery located on the property to find clues. After answering all the questions they found the last cache. Everyone had a great time exploring the nature preserve and learning the sport of Geocaching. According to Conner, his first Geocaching adventure "was a great experience"!

Geocaching tips:

• Read the section "Getting Started" on www.geocaching.com prior to going caching for the first time.
  
• When Geocaching, please respect the land and dispose of waste properly. Many seekers also participate in "Cache In- Trash Out": after finding your treasure, pick up any trash that you see on the way back.
• Never put food, candy, tobacco, or fragrant items in a cache.
  
• When hiding a cache, make sure to get permission from the land owner first.
• Always travel with a buddy!
  

Photos and Article by: Jennifer Doss

Spend the Holiday with DRBA!

DRBA JULY FIRST SATURDAY OUTING FLOATS MAYO RIVER

Want to spend your holiday close to home, in a beautiful setting with congenial folks?
Come to the Mayo River in Rockingham County, NC for the Dan River Basin Association’s First Saturday Outing on July 5. Meeting at 10:00 a. m. at a private put-in downstream from Anglin Mill Bridge, the group will float nine and a half miles to US 220 Business Access, near the towns of Stoneville and Mayodan.
Trip coordinators are T and Lindley Butler, among the founding members of the Association. T Butler recalls that the Mayo River was the first river she ever floated, and she has been canoeing ever since. She considers it an excellent place for “first-timers,” a fairly easy section of mostly Class 1 rapids suitable for a family outing. “The Mayo River is one of the region’s great treasures,” adds Lindley Butler, who helped secure the Mayo River State Park designation. “The unspoiled beauty of the river, with forested banks, wildlife, birds, and few signs of civilization make it a perfect get-away within easy reach of Piedmont North Carolina and Virginia.” Participants will pass through portions of the Mayo River State Park, navigating through several 1000-year-old fish weirs created in the river by Native Americans and used by early settlers. “The vee-shaped stone fish weirs concentrated migrating fish at the point of the vee, where they were collected in nets or baskets,” says North Carolina historian Lindley Butler, who has studied the history of the region. Great spawning runs came from the Atlantic, up the Roanoke and Dan, into the Mayo River and its tributaries, where the fish laid their eggs and headed back downstream. For centuries, until dams stopped the fish migrations, people who lived near the river made huge catches that fed their communities or provided a living. Nowadays, the fish weirs provide routes through shallow water, enhancing the interest of the float.

Participants in the outing are asked to bring boat, life jacket, lunch and water, to dress in layers of artificial (quick-drying) fabric and to sign a waiver.

To reach the put-in, from US 220 north of Stoneville, exit onto Smith Road (SR 1360) and turn west. Go four miles to a T-intersection with Anglin Mill Road (SR 1358). Turn left on Anglin Mill Road and travel about a half-mile to within less than a mile of the Anglin Mill Bridge over the Mayo. Turn left onto unpaved Old Anglin Mill Road (SR 1385). Go one-half mile to a T-intersection with Mayo Beach Road (SR 1359). Turn left, and travel one mile to the south end of the road.

Outings and meetings of the Dan River Basin Association are open to the public without charge.
For more information, contact T Butler, members@danriver.org or 336-349-5727.
For membership information, visit http://www.danriver.org/.

Late Evening Browns on the Smith

Photo essay submitted by: Brian Williams


David [Jones] called me at the office yesterday as I was finishing up a report. I had been at it most of the day and was ready for a break. He was ready to get in on the sulfer hatch on the river this evening and was coming by to pick me up. We headed to Bassett and the upper special regulations section.

The current was still ripping as we eased downstream into place. They shut it down at 6 and slowly the water began to recede as we watched a tremendous hatch hovering above the water......then ever so slightly we saw the first signs of trout rising. As the water began to drop, they really turned it on and we hooked up with a few typical Smith River Browns.
It doesn't seem that cold at the truck in 80 degree weather but the river changes all that. It's amazing how cold it gets out there with that 50 degree water flying by and creating a cool breeze. Thoughts of being cold quickly fade as a Smith River Brown rises to your fly and we were enjoying the hook-ups as much as the missed hits. But we managed to pull in a few little trout in which were quickly released.

All too soon the sun fell out of the sky and we headed for the bank and climbed out next to our old friend, the giant sycamore that stands like a sentinel over this section of the river.

Climbing up the bank we stood for a moment and watched the rise of browns as they gorged on sulfers and midges. You could hear the sound of popping as the trout continued a voracious feed on into the night...."river music" at it's finest ! As the light faded across the river bottom, we headed back to the truck... grateful for another brief but satisfying encounter with the feisty Smith River Browns !