Another Dismal Day

The night at the visitor's center was uneventful, just the way a boater likes them. We woke up the next morning to damp decks but fairly clear skies. Today promised to be a fun day for us with plans for us to be off the boat much of the day.

As we ate breakfast, we watched a couple of other boats pass through the pontoon bridge as they headed north towards Norfolk.

The Visitor's Center makes available free bicycles to ride a trail along the Dismal Swamp Canal if you have the time and the inclination. We had both... so away we went.

The five mile paved trail ride was a great way to stretch out some legs that do not seem to get quite enough exercise when you are boating.

The ride provided views of the canal from the land side perspective.

One of the features was the "Carved In Stone" original mileage markers of which there are only several that are still in place.

A local Girl Scout troop made and installed some bird houses for the North Carolina version of the wood duck. I didn't know that these ducks would use them but they sure do. It has revived the local wood duck population greatly as they provide a protective habitat for their enhanced survival.

There had been a recent hatch of butterflies which are a little difficult to photograph. They were quite busy in the morning sun and a sure sign of spring which was good for us to see.

Once back at the center we decided to cross the pontoon bridge to the other side of the canal and explore a trail there.

The parks department had set up some displays along the way to show you a little bit about the history in the area. One shows a full scale model of a flat bottom boat that was used to transport white cedar wooden shakes from side canals to the main Dismal Swamp Canal. These were towed by hand along trails adjacent to the canals.

No visit to the swamp would be complete without a little history of the "home-grown" still industry. There were lots of them in the Swamp where the revenue agents were not welcomed. Story has it that many agents entered the Dismal Swamp but did not return. One of the older park employees who grew up in the area said that he can remember as a child hearing explosions at times indicating that the revenue agents found another still and blew it up.

After our return of the the bikes to the Visitor's Center we reboarded In My Element and headed north up the canal a whole six miles.

Along the way we crossed the state line from North Carolina to Virginia so we knew we were making progress. There were a few more of the original stone markers as we too headed north.

                           

We located the unoccupied dock at the location of the of The Feeder Canal from Lake Drummond. The dock was about 20' long so we had boat sticking beyond each end.

After  packing a lunch and launching the dinghy we started our trip up the Feeder Canal.

Once again there were many turtles to be seen along the way.

This lake is about 3 miles up this side canal and the lake itself is about 3 miles in diameter. The woods around this lake was once the source of the timber harvested for the early wood products industry.

Today there is a dam there that regulates the height and flow of water in and from Lake Drummond with about a 6-8 foot difference. The spillway is closely controlled by a park employee.

Once we got to the spillway we saw that there was a tram system to get your dinghy from the "low" water side to the "high" water side. This tram utilizes a continuous feed cable system ...

to move the tram up and over the little hill to the other side. We had to give it a try.

The tram car is lowered down into the water on the lower end...

the dinghy is centered onto the car...

a very lovely tram control operator pushes the button to raise the tram to the other side...

while a conductor supervises the the launch of the dinghy.

Once we were up on the "high" side we had about a one mile ride in the dinghy to the lake itself.

We were told that there may be a few obstacles along the route but as long as we were there, we thought we should check them out.

Lake Drummond provided many spectacular views once we cleared the shoreline.

These included the growth of trees with their intricate and water tolerant root systems out of the lake.

After a shoreline tour skippered by the Admiral...

we returned to the canal and the tram area. The dinghy was transported back to the "low" side and we eventually returned to the boat.

We called this tram system "The Little Chute" as it was a miniature preview of what we will see at the end of the Trent-Severn Canal in Canada. There we will be putting In My Element on a railroad car and transporting it and everything on it from the "high" side to the "low" side with about a 50' drop. The Canadians call that one "The Big Chute". Stay tuned!

Nautical Word For The Day: [from seatalk.info]

Pooped:

1. Being suddenly overwhelmed by a sea breaking over the stern of a boat.

From Great Loop Jargon:

2. A rating given to a degree of "tiredness" after a long day at the helm.