Lower Deep River (New Moncure access to US1.)

Fun trip with some new friends, Grace and Don. Grace is from Winston Salem and Don is from nearby me, in Holly Springs. Look for them to take on some trips. They are great company and hold their own in the rapids. We put in at the New Moncure access, which has a gear drop off point with about a football field and a half distance away parking for anyone that is curious about this location.

Water was decent at a little under 3.7 ft on the gage at Moncure, which we also got to see right before the first set of rapids, class 1.

We managed to play in the little waves and at the end of them we found a nice spot to do some attaining, which I’ll probably go back to. Otherwise the rapids before the dam were not too exciting, but we managed to have some fun nevertheless.

We paddled the short section of flat following the first rapids. Then, we got out a little before the dam and followed the goat trail close to the rock quarry retaining wall to the put in below. The portage wasn’t too bad, but hopefully soon it won’t be needed with plans for the Lockville Dam to be removed in the near future. When we got to the bottom, we took a look at the breach. It was impressive and we decided someone very skilled could run down it, but not us. Then, we put back in below the dam for really the best set of rapids of the section, basically a long wavetrain at today’s level. I managed to catch an eddy in a spot I’ve been meaning to try with decent water. We continued to the last rapid and played around a bit in the current. Good trip and very nice to continue meeting people in the club.