THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 29, 1994 TAG: 9408290058
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: CHRIS KIDDER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 47 lines
Less than a 30-minute drive from the Outer Banks, in the heart of the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, paddlers drift in single file toward Sawyer Lake.
They glide down a narrow cut of black water, beneath a canopy of sweet gums and red maples.
The rich, dark water is a perfect mirror for leaf and sky.
Depth becomes an illusion in a bottomless reflection of blues and greens.
Where the sunlight shines on the creek bank, butterflies flit among the tall grasses.
Wood ducks, pileated woodpeckers and warblers live in the woods. Osprey and heron fish along the water's edge.
Guide Melvin Twiddy, owner of Wilderness Canoeing, leads David and Lillian Davis and their daughters, Lissa and Claudia, out of the shady canal.
They pause, taking in a long and narrow lake, filled with waterlilies and hibiscus, surrounded by stands of Atlantic white cedar, bald cypress and loblolly pines. ``It's just beautiful,'' says Lillian Davis.
Twiddy, a Dare County native, first paddled the waterways at Alligator River more than 10 years ago. Since then, he's guided nearly 200 paddlers through the maze of creeks and lakes in the refuge.
For the past seven years, he's brought Sierra Club members here for their annual canoe outing.
The scenery is what keeps Twiddy coming back. ``I've been canoeing in quite a few places,'' he says. ``This is the prettiest place in Dare County as far as wilderness goes.''
If people expect to see a lot of wildlife at the refuge, says Twiddy, they'll be disappointed.
Although the 150,000 acres of wetland habitat support a healthy population of red wolves, alligators, deer, bear, nutria, snakes and raccoons, ``the woods are so dense you can't see but 20 feet back.''
But no matter what they expect, paddlers who follow Twiddy across Sawyer Lake and down Milltail Creek find a natural wilderness with its own story to tell.
It's a story that is well worth the trip. by CNB