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Fighting the wind and tide to explore the Mattaponi
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The 15 Venture Crew members and adult chaperons still smile despite the cold.
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The Coast Guard shared stories about its mission with the members of the Venture Crew.
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Venture Crew explores the wilds of Virginia.
Date published: 4/8/2008
The young men and women of Venture Crew 1717 discovered the beauty of the Mattaponi River during spring break.
This was no simple trip to the water's edge to fish, or look at the wildlife abundant on the high banks, swaying marshes or partly submerged sand/silt bar islands. Although they did all of those things, they did it during a 20-mile canoe trip from Walkerton to Boardley.
Eleven crew members and four adults braved the cold air temps--and even colder water temps--to take this high adventure trek. They all managed to stay dry, well, relatively speaking, that is. No one capsized.
The crew set out on March 24, staying in their base camp at Heartquake Estates during that 20-degree night. Tuesday morning the crew excitedly set out at 4 a.m. with eight canoes along a tidal stretch of river.
Setting out down river from the Walkerton boat ramp shortly after first light, the crew immediately had to overcome a temporary setback when one of the canoes developed a leak. Other than running aground a few times on mud/silt bars slightly below the surface of the water, everything was going well, until the tide changed.
Attempting to make it to the Mattaponi Indian Reservation for lunch, the crew had a taste of paddling against the tide for about an hour, before making it to their lunch destination.
After visiting the reservation, the crew headed back upriver to its midway campsite. Arriving at the dock belonging to the Rivers Edge Construction Company, the crew unpacked and set up camp for the night on the banks high above the river in King and Queen County as the winds began to pick up.
As they made a slight repair to one of the boats that had started to slowly leak, they noticed that their scout flag was now sticking straight out from the stiff wind.
Read more stories about Stafford
Date published: 4/8/2008
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