Life In & Around Martinsville-Henry County

Children, a Really Cool Museum, and a Cold

I’ve had a cold. It was a humdinger of a cold but it wasn’t covid. I know this because I went and got a test immediately after waking up with a sore throat that I knew was going to become something else. But getting the test was kind of interesting so I wanted to share how that worked.

I called my doctor’s office and said I had a sore throat. I said that I knew something was coming on and needed to know what it was to see if I needed to be cancelling plans for Labor Day weekend. I was so absorbed with the idea of covid that it didn’t dawn on me that I’d be cancelling plans anyway. No one wants my cold either.

They said to come to the office and pull up around back. This was my view. A friend of mine called it sketchy when I texted this picture to her.

The interesting thing was the number of other cars there. There were at least six when I pulled up and several more came in while I was getting tested and talked to a doctor. The nurse said that they are seeing more patients this way than inside. It’s apparently a sign of the times that no one in my circles is talking about. It turns out that the number of infections is ramping up in my area. No one is talking about that either.

I’d had a busy weekend before coming down with my cold.

I went and saw Gypsy Geoff perform at the Piedmont Arts’ 60th Family Day celebration. This turned out to be an exclusively kid-centric event, so I didn’t return with photos. I don’t photograph other people’s kids. I think that there’re laws about it and it just seems creepy in general so I avoid taking pictures of kids.

Geoff’s performance was fantastic though. When I walked up, he was spinning plates and telling the kids that this would work for all of their dinnerware at home too. He spun things. He balanced things. The video below is of his finale. He then did an encore of adorable puppeteering.

Afterwards, I checked out the Leaves Exhibit at the Piedmont Arts building.

They had a traveling exhibit open. It is called “Leaves of the Tree” and is the work of Charlie Brouwer and Jennifer L. Hand. Piedmont Arts regularly has interesting exhibits and this one is leaving October 9th. I am not sure of the etiquette of photographing inside the Arts building so I only snapped a couple of shots.

The centerpiece of the exhibit is a man made tree trunk surrounded by dozens? hundreds? of handmade paper leaves suspended from the ceiling. It was very intricate and I never could get a snapshot that captured the overall effect.

The art on the walls was varied and is well worth seeing. My tastes are simple. I took only one close up shot of my favorite piece – a single dried leaf cross-stitched with the phrase “This time This place”.

Just down Starling Avenue – a beautiful road, by the way, filled with older two-story brick homes now used as professional offices – is the Virginia Museum of Natural History.

Martinsville is difficult to peg as either a small town or a big city (for the area). As a matter of fact, they are currently trying to lose their “independent city” status and meld back in with the county. It’s all very confusing but no one would dispute that Martinsville used to be a lot bigger. My personal opinion is that it is back on an upswing. But the whole point of this prologue is to say that the natural history museum here is big. It is connected to the Smithsonian in some way. This is not a dinky little museum.

There are a lot of ancient bones on display. There is the often photographed dinosaur that greets you as you come in but there are also fully articulated bones of water dwelling – are they still called dinosaurs? – critters hanging from the ceiling. I took a ton of photos of the different dioramas but can’t include them all or the page won’t load. I have posted them to the Martinsville/Henry County photo album on the blog’s Facebook Page.

There are, of course, educational placards everywhere. It is, after all, a museum.

But, as I look through my photos, I notice that there seemed to be an underlying theme to them. I am suddenly feeling very sorry for muskox.

This is a muskox.

Here we have a muskox being attacked by lions. It might not be a muskox, but it looks very much like the first two.

And then there was this poor fellow on the wall.

The museum has exhibits that change out from time to time and the exhibit on the day that I was there was of big cats. A neighbor recently reported seeing a mountain lion less than a mile from my home about two months ago so, while most of the cats they had were not really relevant to our area, this guy was.

The cats exhibit was well done and there were a lot of them.

There was a whole pride of lions and, behind them, some leopards? cheetahs? going after a gazelle in a tree.

The exhibit changes in October, I think. Friday, October 15th, they are having a Dragon Festival. There will be dragon displays and art, a full sized dragon sculpture, fire performances, blacksmith presentations, stilt walkers, medieval LARP performances, sci fi and fantasy authors, live music, a beer & mead garden, a ren faire marketplace, and more.

Exactly what is life-sized for a dragon?

I am pretty sure that I caught my cold taking one of the photos in this post. I am also pretty sure that I will be attending the Dragon Festival. All of these locations require masks and I did wear one when I was there.

For this next trip, I’m stocking up on hand sanitizer.

Kayaking Philpott Marina & Philpott Dam

I actually do work for a living. I technically qualify to join Henry County’s 50+ Club (I’m over 50) but I do have to ask off from work to attend their weekday events. But it has been SO worth it.

This month’s kayak was at Philpott Marina. This launch spot is at the southern end of the lake and it is a very short trip over to see the dam.

There is a big sign on the dam that says to stay 500 feet back. I have a camera with a really good zoom.

One of the other kayakers pointed out that there are windows in the dam facing the lake. The bottom of the windows is just a little above the spillway. It must have been an awe-inspiring sight to look out those windows the one and only time that the lake was high enough to go over the spillway.

When you are over by the dam, if you turn and look north up the lake, you can just barely make out the Blue Ridge Mountains peeking up on the far horizon. Philpott Lake covers 2900 acres and it is long and narrow(ish). It has 100 miles of shoreline.

Bowen Falls is not too far away from Philpott Marina but I found that out too late to try to go take a look. It’s nice to leave something for next time though. We spent our afternoon kayaking up one of the many little spines that branch away from the main channel of the lake.

The water is clear by Texas standards but I know that isn’t saying much. It isn’t crystal clear like I’ve seen in maybe Minnesota or Maine, but it is definitely not murky.

The shoreline is a little low. One of the county employees told me that the lake is about three feet down right now. You can see erosion along the shore line and the trees tip over and fall in if they lose enough soil.

This is great for fishing and two of the county’s chaperones brought out their fishing boat to drop a line in while keeping an eye on us. They were pros and very good about not creating a wake. Our group did get a little spread out as the afternoon went on and it was nice to know that they could respond to any issues quickly.

It was a beautiful day. We had a small group because there was a competing blood drive in the county and many of our kayaking ladies had volunteered to help with that.

Philpott Lake is a US Army Corps of Engineers lake and there is no development on it. In fact, the only marina on the lake where you can permanently moor a boat or buy gasoline on the water is Philpott Marina.

Philpott has requested to expand its slip rentals but the Corps has refused based on their location on the lake. There had been another marina up at Twin Ridge but it burned in 2000. That means that all boat traffic on Philpott Lake, with the exception of the handful of boats moored here, has to be trailered in and launched.

That doesn’t keep the lake from getting busy though. Besides Twin Ridge, I have yet to see other launches but the launch at Philpott Marina is very nice. It has the two accesses separated by a narrow dock. It also has a lot of parking for trailers. I started to take a picture but it’s a parking lot. Trust me. There is a lot of parking.

There are also campgrounds and a trail off by the side of the marina that leads to another parking lot and a fishing spot.

As fishing spots go, it would be good for the able-bodied fisherman. It’s a bit of a scramble to get down to the shoreline.

Philpott Marina is in a cluster of accesses. Right next to the marina is the observation deck where so many photos are taken of Philpott Lake. It is especially beautiful in the fall but I went there one fall day when it rained and it was incredible.

You can also get to the other side of the dam with another access. This is where you find the first access to Smith River for kayaks.

Class 1 to 3 rapids. I’m comfortable with class 1, a little nervous about class 2, and there’s no way I’m going on class 3 without a guide who’s done it before. The moving water is beautiful though.

There is plenty of parking and a well marked access.

There is a gate across the access that prevents a vehicle from getting down there. Since the strength of the river depends on how much water is let out from the dam, you need to call ahead before just setting out. I don’t know if the gate is an indication of whether or not it is okay to put in or if they just don’t want ordinary folks trying to back down the access.

That would be completely understandable though, since the access is narrow and a little rough.

At the bottom of the access, you are looking up at the dam and hearing the water being released. It is a little awe-inspiring.

I will leave you with this last photo that completely took me by surprise. There is a hiking trail that juts off from the kayak access and continues on along the shore of the river. The cool water being released by the dam was reacting with the warmer water in the river and a mist was rising up off of the surface. It was absolutely gorgeous.

I hope that this is something that always happens and I can get back and take some incredible shots of that.

#thereissomuchtodohere

Kayak Quest Completed? Smith River Festival

It took me forty-five minutes to tie my new-to-me kayak to my car the morning of the Smith River Festival. But I did it. I got it attached to my car, got myself to the festival, had a WONDERFUL day, and got myself home in one piece.

The Smith River Festival is an annual festival here, held at the Smith River Sports Complex. It runs 10 to 4 and is packed with activities. There’s the Helgramite 5K Mud Run, a river race, free tubes provided for tubing, free shuttles for tubes and kayaks, a demo pool for trying out different kinds of kayaks or SUPs, a petting zoo, a yoga class, a beer garden, live music, and activities for kids to include bikes to ride, a climbing tower, and a bounce house. And then there’s a rubber duck race that I keep missing.

Timing is everything with the Smith River Festival. If you have a kayak, you can drive down to the river to drop it off and then park. If you are early enough, you can park close by. Otherwise you end up parking further and further away. By late morning, you have to park over by the soccer fields and take a shuttle to the festival.

Live Music Pavilion (left) Beer Garden (right)

I am always early. I arrived around 9:30, dropped off my kayak, and was able to park in the first row away from the demo pool . The down side to being early is that the festival itself – the tents, the music, even the bounce house – were still being set up.

Snow Cones, Climbing Tower, Bounce House Inflated, Chain of Fools Bicycle Tent Manned

I puttered around awhile and took some photos. It’s kind of nice to see a festival start taking shape.

There were so many activities. Tons. They really excelled at providing things to do.

One thing this is not is an artisan fare. There were military recruiters, some political tents, various organizations that wanted to get the word out about programs they had. There were a few individuals selling things that they had made, but not many. It’s not really that kind of festival. I was pleased to see our local bike shop, Chain of Fools, in attendance. As the weather cools off, I’ll stop by there for a post of its own.

There was one tent that really stood out though. That was largely because they would take a huge monitor lizard (wearing a cowboy hat) out for a walk or they would wrangle a rather large reticulating python.

Officer Clark Wrangling a Reticulating Python

Animal Control Officer Clark has been “in the news” (on Facebook) for rescuing a stray cat and fostering it for the Martinsville Henry County SPCA until a home can be found. Animals seem to really like him and this python was no exception. Every time they set it down, it sought him out.

They dipped the python in water to keep it cool. In the picture above, you can see that it still was making its way to Officer Clark. I think that they did a good job with the snakes. They were very careful about controlling their temperatures. In the picture below, they were taking the temperature of a jungle python.

This Jungle Python is Getting a Temperature Check

But the real focus of Smith River Festival is the river. And about all the ways that you can enjoy the river. The Dan River Basin Association had a fantastic demo pool set up for trying different types of kayaks and paddle boards.

I finally got to try a sit-on-top kayak. Wouldn’t you know that it was a Liquidlogic. Dare I say that I’m in love again? The Liquidlogic Coupe XP runs $869 on their website right now. This is, at least, still less expensive than the others I’ve fallen in love with so far. However, the website says that it’s on backorder now.

One of the Demo Kayaks: A Liquidlogic Coupe

The Helgramite Mud Run started at 11. I was anxious to get into the water but I really wanted to see the Mud Run get underway.

I got a good vantage point next to the starting line. All the runners shoes looked beautiful. Mine, I wear once and they look like I’ve been using them as yard shoes. They assured me that, no, they were old shoes. One racer even had his duct-taped to his feet.

A Clever Runner in the Helgramite Mud Run

The first pit is right at the start and it was fun to watch all those people lunge through the pit. I took over a dozen pictures (easily) and the rest are on the blog’s Facebook page.

The First Mud Pit in the 2021 Helgramite Mud Run

Then it was time for what I had come for. I had a choice to go down a stretch that I had done before or go down a part that was new to me. The shuttle was free and would pick me up at the next launch down or even the one after that, if I wanted. I did want to. But, even at 11, there weren’t that many people lining up for a shuttle or on the water and I was worried about doing something new on water I didn’t know – by myself. It would probably be okay but I’m not a “probably” kind of person when it comes to drowning.

I chose the South Martinsville back to the Complex stretch. I thought I “knew” it.

That’s Rives Road Crossing the River Ahead

I never regret time on the water and I was a fool to think that I knew this stretch. I had been down this run last year, when the water was so high that it was close to being too high for kayakers of my skill level to ride. I’m not going to see any rapids to speak of on this, I thought.

I ate my words quickly. There were rapids right after Rives Road. I watched two kayakers in front of me. The first went through on the left and motioned to the second, who blew off the instructions and went through the middle.

I approached. Tacked for the left. Got right up on it and frantically paddled out of it. I went through the middle and realized that I had underestimated this stretch. I forgot that the water had been very low until just recently. There were actually fewer rapids when the water was higher.

The rapids made the trip all the more interesting and enjoyable. I am getting braver with my camera too. Once through the rapids, several times I pulled back up to the rocks to get some close ups of the water rushing through. Only once did my camera get doused. But it survived.

Unlike when I was on the river before, I passed by a lot of people. Some in tubes. Some in kayaks. Some forming chains four, five, or six kayaks across, just drifting with the current and enjoying their company.

There’s a spot not far from the complex where you can see the Dick & Willie Passage Rail Trail following along the river. By this time, I was chatting with another couple of kayakers and one told me that they actually had to blast some rock here to make the path through.

One of the Few Places Where You Can See the Dick & Willie Trail from the River

And then, before I knew it, I was back at the complex. I could have kept going and I probably should have since there were so many people on the water now. But it had finally dawned on me that I was going to have to repeat my feat of getting the kayak back on top of the car before I could get home. It was now 2, the festival ended at 4, and I hadn’t had a chance to have a beer in the beer garden and relax.

In retrospect, I do wish that I had continued. For one thing, maybe I wouldn’t have forgotten about the rubber duck race.

I guess that’s what next year is for.

🙂

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