Since Maryland is such a long drive from Georgia, I went up to my buddies in NC early and spent some time fishing Kerr Lake to break up the drive. We did not take a boat out but the dock fishing was fun none the less. We used small rods to catch Brim for bait and larger setups to target Catfish, Striper if we were lucky. No Striper this trip but I managed a nice brim and Cat.
The next day it was off to Maryland. We got a little cabinet at Little Orleans Campground. Overall it was a good arrangement and we did not have to sleep in tents. Basically, it is an RV with a little room built on. The kitchen and bathroom were a little cramped but the "living room" was very roomy and held all of our stuff. I opted for the couch rather than the bunk beds and my buddy and his girlfriend took the full bed in the RV. There was a nice front porch and the lighted back area had a picnic table, fire pit, and BBQ area.
We stayed Friday, Saturday, and left Sunday AM. This gave us two days to float the river. My buddy, Steve, has a large family and I think the majority of them live on the East Coast near this area. At least most could drive to the campground within a few hours if not less. The first days' float was small compared to Saturdays float where we had about 30 people. This nade for a lot of fun but it could be difficult to fish at times. You just had to socialize with the various groups and then paddle on to a secluded area or gap in the participants.
The road to the boat ramp was extremely rough and it took a toll on my trailer. I couple welds broke loose from the top rack and I backed into a stump I could not see. Steves son did a quick repair to hold me over for the Bear Island trip and the stump only caused a small dent I can knock back out.
At the end of the second float, one guy took all the drivers back to get the trucks. There was a caravan and I was about 5th in line. A couple trucks in front of me lost the group and took a wrong route. We ended up having to turn around on the narrow road and to top it off in the dark. I swung wide in some tall grass and did not see a deep hole/ditch and dropped the front passenger tire into it. The funny part was, I went back and looked at my dashcam footage and I actually got out and looked all around for clearance. I went back to save the footage the other day and it was past my storage time and deleted :( The two guys I was following were great about helping to pull me out.
When the truck dropped in it ripped the running board off and jammed it up into the rocker and door. It also buckled my front bumper at the lip around the tire. That was not too bad but it did lift the paint at the edge. Once I got back to Georgia I called and set up a repair with my insurance company.
Awesome trip as usual. Great friends and lots of fun!
