Sports & Outdoors
Hike. Paddle. Preserve. A brief update on the Haw River, the state’s newest hiking and paddling blueway By ANNA-RHESA VERSOLA Photography by JOHN MICHAEL SIMPSON
aw riverkeeper Emily Sutton loves what she does every day in the great outdoors of Chatham County, where she monitors the health and safety of the Haw River. “I get to work with incredibly passionate people both on my staff and in our community [who] are concerned about the river and also [who] love this river so deeply,” she says about the Haw River Assembly, a member-based nonprofit with a mission to restore and protect the Haw and Jordan Lake. 102
C H AT H A M M AG A Z I N E
SUMMER 2024
The Haw begins in a tiny crawfish hole in Forsyth County. The waters touch six different counties before flowing through Jordan Lake and joining the Deep River to form the headwaters of the Cape Fear River, which spills into the Atlantic Ocean. This June marks the first anniversary of approximately 80 miles of the Haw River Trail becoming officially incorporated into the state’s public park system. Emily says this gives the trail a different level of protection and a different bracket of funding. Nature enthusiasts can paddle and hike along this blueway from Haw River State Park in Rockingham and Guilford counties to the