James River Expeditions: Thursday, July 17, 2014 - Scottsville to Seven Islands Farm

- This morning we woke up bright and early in preparation for a big day. First we prepped the camp for departure and then ate a lovely breakfast of bagels with peanut butter, jelly, and cream cheese. Then the group was visited by CBS news for interviews and discussion of what the trip is all about as we finished packing up. A little later, M14Unit made its way across a bridge to downtown Scottsville, where we visited the Scottsville Canal Basin Park. Tim, its director, told us about the canal system and the bateaux that traverse it. Did you know that bateaux - when they were in their prime of use - ranged anywhere from 40 to 60 feet in length? We learned lots of other neat facts as well.

Then we joined Randy and his crew on the James for a day long trip on the "Slate River" bateau to Seven Islands – about a 10 mile journey. On the boat we occupied ourselves with fishing, card games, resting (catching up on much needed sleep!), snacking from our “Snacky B” (i.e. much-loved snack bucket), and continuing to learn about the history of bateaux. Another point of interest: we saw two deers leaping across the James River! They looked to be about one year old. We also attempted to stop and view an old aqueduct near the Hardware River, but were unfortunately unable to do so because the bateau could only travel so far upstream without running into rocks. The journey continued onward until we reached our campsite, where we set up camp and welcomed Anne Maxwell back to our crew! Currently, dinner calls. We are having stir fry – yum!