2024 Middle James River Expedition

Follow along on the Middle James River Expedition, part of session 1 of the James River Leadership Expeditions program! 11 intrepid students, 3 JRA educators, and 1 teacher will journey ~50 miles down the James on canoes and experience the river between July 15 and 19th, 2024. 

We got to camp and did icebreakers with the group get to know everyone and then we set up camp. Then we ate lunch and had wraps/sandwiches! After lunch, we went down to the river and learned some canoeing basics! We learned how to paddle in pairs, using the stern to steer and the bow paddler to power the boat. We also got to swim around a bit while wearing our PFDs for safety.

After we dried off, we went on a hayride around the park led by a park interpreter named Victoria. We rode around the park in a truck-drawn wagon, and went to a viewing spot where you can see where the Tye and James rivers meet. We also saw a bald eagle!!! Our tour guide told us about the history of the state park and its original owners.

Following our ride, we went back to camp and hung out as a group. We later had a leadership lesson about personality types and their traits. We each learned about different dominant personality types, and talked about how to interact with team members who might differ from our preferred leadership style. We assigned camp jobs and while assigning the camp chefs Gabe reminded us to “Gas up the chefs!” Then we hung out some more and played some games as a group like hackey sack, soccer, and such.

For dinner, we had an Italian meal that consisted of spaghetti, garlic bread, meat sauce and salad! When we were done, we cleaned up everything from our meal and headed back to camp for the night. Tomorrow brings a long day of paddling, so we’re ready to rest up!

Our day began at 7am SHARP! We dressed ourselves, broke down our very own tents, and devoured a hearty breakfast of Variety Pack Oatmeal and bananas de-lish! After our meal we began our descent to Howardsville. In our beautifully selected canoe pairs we hauled ourselves, and the belongings of all 14 members of our group in 6 canoes and one kayak.

After what seemed like forever we took a break for meal number two, commonly known as “lunch” We parked our canoes upon the brink of a small island, and immediately sat in the unfortunately shallow waters. After our brief soak, we devoured our delicious custom wraps composed of a variety of lunch meats, cheeese, and fresh vegetables.

This is where the tables, or should I say canoes, were turned… We were bombarded with the decision of new canoe partners. Easy choice, if I do say so myself 🙂 We were faced with many challenges along the route, but after a total of 8 hours we arrived at our destination.

Upon our arrival we were greeted with the most delectable treat of Gatorade and watermelon 🍉 as well as perfectly set up tents (THANK YOU MATT!!!) After a solid 30 minutes of Matt appreciation, our wonderful chefs, Emily and Mathias, prepared a decedent TACO TUESDAY meal 🌮 Its safe to say they cooked and we ate.

After dinner some enjoyed a river bath, while others basked in the beauty of a wild possum (our newly appointed JRLE mascot) We now bid you goodbye as the thunder rumbles, and a campfire begins. Nighty night don’t let the possum bite!

At precisely 7am, our camp woke up and began eating our breakfast, consisting of bagels and yogurt. After breaking down our tents and loading canoes, we set sail towards Scottsville. In the late morning, we conquered rough class 2 rapids, while Liles and Emily flipped their canoe. Luckily they recovered and Matt helped bail their boat, so we continued the day strong.

Later in the day, after docking on a hilly shore, we shared lunch with JRA restoration interns and members. Once we settled down, we devoured our lunch of sandwiches and fruit. Then, as a team of JRLE and JRA members, we continued our nine mile journey and made a pit stop for cliff jumping.

We docked our boats at Rock Island and climbed a steep hill to jump into the water. Some of the most memorable jumps came from Julia, Liles, and Sunny, with crazy flips. We then departed the island with roughly 3 miles to go until camp. During this time, we solved riddles, sung Disney songs, and enjoyed the weather for the time being. We arrived at our campsite at 3pm and managed to set up our tents before an unexpected storm. However, we happened to unwind with some ice cream and popsicles from Amber, our JRA friend in Scottsville.

Once the storm cleared, our Chefs Sunny and Madeline started cooking hamburgers, hotdogs, and beans. At the picnic table, we demolished our cookout dinner, washed our dishes, and got schooled on Gar fish by Julia and John. Excitedly, we all rushed to showers for our first and only rinse of our expedition. As of now, it is 7:30, we plan to have a campfire and catch some Zzz’s to prepare for tomorrow’s journey.  

Once again, we woke up at 7am and began to pack up camp. Our breakfast, set up by Julia and John, consisted of everything bagels, yogurts, and fruits. We quickly packed up camp so that we could set out and beat the storm that was approaching or next campsite. Our navigators, Emily and Mathias, helped guide our future path.

As we departed from Scottsville, we organized our new paddle partners and began our 7 mile journey to tonight’s camp. During the first few miles of the paddle, the water was slow with few rapids. The rapids began to pick up in the later miles, as did the approaching storms behind us. Within the last half mile, we experienced a downpour of rain and the fastest rapids yet. Upon our arrival of our last camp sight, Seven Islands, we hustled to unload our canoes, and bring all of our gear to our new site.

While waiting out the rain, we played some new, fun camp games that Gabe and Emma taught us to pass the time. As the rain slowed, we were able to set up our tents while Julia and John made us a lunch of sandwiches, chips, and fruit. We played more games as the sun came out, and then set up our camp’s new restroom.

During our free time of the last full camp day, we swam in the river, fished, read books, and enjoyed each other’s company. We left the water to begin drying off and prepping dinner; fire-baked pizza and salad. As we continue our last day of camp, we celebrate Emily’s 16th birthday with cupcakes and s’mores by the fire. Though it’s hard to believe our adventurous camping expedition has almost come to an end, we look forward to returning to the comforts of our own home.

As our last day starts up, we prepare to make a short 3 mile paddle to our final departure site at Bremo Bluff. We’ve made some good friends this week, and it will be hard to say goodbye!

We chose our last paddle partners and set off on a gorgeous day. Since we have some time before we meet our families at the end, we took it slow down the river and “gunwaled up”, linking our boats together to float as a big group. We started to ponder what our eventual goals will be later in our program. In November, we’ll all meet again to begin creating ideas for our action projects, the culminating part of this program. There’s lots from this week that we learned, and lots of ideas we have to improve the health of the James!

We finally navigated our last set of rapids and brought our boats in for a landing. After racking our boats and gear back on the rig, we said our fond farewells and shared our favorite moments from the trip in a big circle together for one last time.

Until our next adventure – River On!