Catawba paddlers celebrate new trail

By LAURA GENEROUS

                   
  
A river trail for paddlers, nearly a decade in the making, will officially open when the Upper Catawba River Trail is dedicated Friday at Riverbend Park in Catawba County.

The Upper Catawba River Trail, which became a state-designated trail in November, is an 82-mile water route for canoes, kayaks and other nonmotorized boats.

It runs from Black Bear Access on Lake James in McDowell County to Lake Lookout Access on Lake Lookout Shoals in Catawba County and features portages and access points along the route.

Sam Erwin of the Western Piedmont Council of Governments, which coordinated the effort, said that several local governments and agencies, local canoe clubs, outdoor groups and Duke Power worked together to meet the guidelines to be a state-designated trail.

"This has been a long time coming," said Erwin. "We've been trying to do this for about nine or 10 years."

One of the larger problems that organizers had to solve was to make sure that Duke Power could maintain portages, the paths that boaters can use to get around dams, on their way downriver.

The trail travels around three dams under Duke Power's control: Bridgewater Dam on Lake James, Rhodhiss Dam and Oxford Dam. It also crosses another dam, Weir Dam, maintained by the city of Morganton. Duke Power agreed to maintain the portages around their dams and contributed $2,500 and provided technical assistance to the effort.

Now the council needs to make people aware of the trail.

The N.C. Department of Environmental and Natural Resources gave the council a $5,000 grant to create signs that mark access sites and portages and to distribute 10,000 free river trail maps throughout the area.

The signs will display the name of the site, feature a basic map that shows paddlers where they are and indicate where the next access point is on the trail. Erwin said the signs were more expensive than originally thought, so the council planned to reduce the number of maps to 7,500. But the Catawba Valley Heritage Alliance, a group that works to preserve open space, encourage recreation and promote environmental education, donated the $215 needed to print and distribute the additional 2,500 maps.

When all the signs are installed and the maps are distributed, Erwin believes that more people will know about the trail and want to use it. The free maps will be available in local outdoor supply stores and at the Hickory Metro Convention Center.

Meanwhile, word of the trail is getting out slowly.

"I don't think a whole lot of people know about it yet," said Howard Mask, co-owner of the Outdoor Supply Co. in Hickory.

Mask meets a lot of outdoor enthusiasts, including boaters, through his business. He said that not many of his customers have mentioned the new trail. Those that know about it seem enthusiastic to try it, but have said the trail needs more public camping areas and that the access points need to be more clearly marked.

When those issues are addressed, Mask said, the trail should be a "nice, low key, easy paddle," ideal for beginners.

Erwin said some of the signs have been posted, and he expects all of them to be in place within the next few weeks.

To celebrate the dedication, two paddlers -- Phil Piaski and Dwayne Stutzman -- who have advocated for the trail, began paddling its entire length on Monday. Several others planned to paddle segments of the trail.

Trail Dedication

The Upper Catawba River Trail will be dedicated at 10 a.m. Friday at Riverbend Park, below Oxford Dam, off N.C. 16 near Conover, in Catawba County. For details, call the Western Piedmont Council of Governments in Hickory at (828) 322-9191.

This article reprinted here by permission from the Charlotte Observer


back to CVHA News Digest