Neuse River in North Carolina

Trip Overview

It was my first kayak adventure. I read about an Outfitter - Tony Daw - here on paddling.com so I went down to the Broadhurst Bridge and rented a kayak from Tony. Instead of doing the trip that passed by the Cliffs of the Neuse I took the shorter - 3 hours for an inexperienced paddler - that began upriver at Casey's Bridge. I would pull out at the Broadhurst Bridge at the outfitter's ramp.

It was a wonderful trip for a first trip. Near the put-in, there were several small boats with gas powered engines with fishermen. But once I past that immediate area, I was basically on my own with nature. The water is very low considering the drought conditions in Eastern North Carolina but I never had to portage the kayak although at one spot I did have to get out and float the kayak over an extremely low area.

During my trip I saw osprey, hawks, kingfishers, blue heron, canadian geese with young, some little red birds about the size of bluebirds, plus box turtles, and a water moccasin on a log. The only creature that startled me at all was a big bass that rolled over in the shallow water right beside the kayak. I wasn't expecting that :-)I also saw much flowering vegetation. I don't have a lot of knowledge of plants but it is something that I will have to look in to since I plan to continue kayaking!

I plan to do the other section that was already reviewed on this site in the near future, with my own kayak!

Outfitting:

Tony Daw's is rustic but he has decent kayaks and canoes for rent.

Directions:

South of Goldsboro to Highway 111. Right before you reach the Broadhurst Bridge you will see the red canoe and sign for Tony Daw's.