It’s about a month long trip from North Carolina to West Virginia, more than 340 miles on the New River.
David Wallace grew up in Summers County. He’s been traveling with the New River Expedition for much of the trip.
“It’s been absolutely fabulous,” he said. “We’ve seen bald eagles, saw a beaver swimming the river and we were standing on the cliff above it.
“It’s just been a fabulous experience plus all the comradery of these people I’m boating with.”
He’s glad to see people from other areas experience the beauty of his hometown.
“This is a great thing to promote tourism for the state of West Virginia,” he said. “Especially communities like Hinton. Really we have so much to offer here for tourists fishing, boating, golf courses, parks, it’s just a fabulous place to vacation.”
And for Wallace, it’s a place filled with childhood memories.
“I was about four to four-and-a-half and my cousin a year or so older,” he told us. “We pushed a galvanized wash tub into the small creek and floated into the New River not knowing that we were floating down to go over the falls”
“Some farmers who were hoeing corn heard us and waited out and saved us and brought us in.”
“I don’t remember the spanking but I know I got one.”
The trip has also been a spiritual experience for Wallace. He says it’s brought him a little closer to his ancestors.
“Standing here with chill bumps as you mention it because the river is pretty much the same course as it was when it was first settled,” he said. “It is the same course it has had a few dams built.”
“A lot of the traveling was done along the river. My ancestors settled the Lilly area and of course that’s not a community but I still have a letter addressed to my mother that was at Lilly, West Virginia.”
Lilly, West Virginia is no longer a town. It was taken off the map in 1924. It disappeared when the Bluestone Dam was built and the area was flooded.
But Wallace isn’t the only one on the trip remembering the rich history. The National Committee for the New River Executive Director George Santucci says he’s in awe when he thinks about the settlers who traveled the river without the technology they have today.
“You’re floating down and you can see a little low spot and then on the other side you see the other low spot and you’re like well people use to cross here,” he said.
“Then you start to see old bridges that were maybe built in the late 1800’s or early 1900’s and now they’re just rock structures out there. It’s really cool.”
Nowadays, traveling from North Carolina to West Virginia in a canoe or raft is an unconventional way of crossing state lines.
But Santucci says while the interstate is beautiful, he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“You come in on the river and you might see a handful of people and it’s so quiet,” he said. “The mornings are the most wonderful. The fog is on the river, it’s something special.”
On Friday morning, the group put in below the Bluestone Dam in Bell Point. Santucci shared memories of the trip so far.
“There’s a lot of men on this trip so there’s a lot of testosterone that have been thrown around and a lot of braggery,” he said. “We get to rapids and we’re like, ‘Oh who’s going to run that rapid who’s not going to run that rapid,’ and making fun of the folks that don’t.”
“It’s been a lot of fun, that way. Nicknames get thrown around.”
Santucci says he doesn’t have a nickname, but there’s still time for that.
They’re not expected to land at their final dock until Wednesday at Gauley Bridge in Fayette County.