Appalachia to Atchafalaya

BOONE, N.C. — Two guys with a sense of adventure and a burning passion for the river plan an ambitious adventure. Ned Savage and Clark Chapman intend to paddle from the headwaters of the New River to the Gulf of Mexico over the next three months in a canoe.

“It’s a crazy idea, but something we’ve thought about doing for a long time,” said Savage during Saturday’s edition of Ram Trucks West Virginia Outdoors.

Savage is a Vista Volunteer and works at Charleston’s East End Bizarre. His dad, Lon Savage, is a Charleston native and penned a book about the history of the mine wars in southern West Virginia. Chapman’s family is originally from the banks of the Ohio River in the Huntington area. Both have a sense of adventure and a sense of history.

“That’s a lot of what we’re hoping to get at with this trip is connecting with the history of this river,” Savage said. “It’s a storied watershed and it seems like our forebears had a lot closer connection to these rivers. It seems like members of our generation have lost some of that.”

The ambitious journey will be a total of 2,200 miles. The starting point will be the Middle Fork of the South Fork of New River near Boone, N.C. When they reach West Virginia, the adventure becomes a little more dicey.

“We’ll portage around Bluestone Dam and Sandstone Falls, but we’ve made arrangements with one of the rafting companies to take us through the Gorge.” Chapman said. “We’re going to run it, just not in a canoe.”

Once past the rugged New River Gorge, the adventure flattens out down the larger Kanawha, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers. They’ll wind up in the Atchafalaya River, the main tributary of the Mississippi in the Louisiana Delta.

The friends planned to restore an old whitewater canoe owned by Savage’s dad for the journey, but couldn’t find the proper replacement parts. They’ve purchased a previously owned 17 foot Mad River Horizon for the trip. They’ll haul a considerable amount of gear, particularly through the West Virginia stretch. Once onto the calmer waters the pair believe they can resupply fairly easy at river towns along the water.

Accommodations will be camping along the shore on public lands sleeping in a hammock. They do have a few plans to couch surf along the way with a few friends.

Timing of the trip may seem suspect, since they’ll be hitting the northern part of the journey just as the snow flies across the Midwest, but Savage said it makes the back end of the trip much more bearable.

“A lot of people will start in early summer and end up down in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana in August and September when it’s brutal and over 100 degrees with mosquitoes eating you alive,” he said. “We’re going to be geared up for some cold weather, don’t get us wrong, it’s not going to be the most pleasant.”

Although it’s difficult to calculate how long the journey will take, Chapman and Savage think they’ll be able to reach their destination in about three months. If timing holds true, they may hit New Orleans in time to catch the Super Bowl.

Along the way, they’ll remain connected with a Facebook page to update their progress. The page is “Downstream: Appalachia to Atchafalaya.” They’ll use solar chargers to keep smartphones juiced and connected when cell service is available.

Aside from the adventure, the two are on a mission to teach as many as they can to appreciate our watersheds and be conservation minded.

“You know, people don’t think about the river. It’s almost like a sewer pipe they can just dump all their junk in and it will just float on down and they don’t’ have to worry about it,” Savage said. “We’re trying to connect with people and figure out how our relationship with the river has changed over time.”





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