“I don’t know if I have a favorite place to paddle-too many places come to mind-but I know five places where you should put your board in the water the next chance you get,” Frye wrote.

Frye featured Midland’s Rocky River Blueway, which stretches from the Pharr Family Preserve to Riverbend Farm, along with spots in Jamesville, Atkinson, Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge and Robbinsville.

“We’re excited that Our State highlighted Midland,” Doug Paris, Midland town manager, said. “Our 5-mile blueway is a fantastic paddle and word is getting out about it.”

In his paragraph about Midland’s blueway, Frye writes that the scenery is excellent and paddlers can see plenty of wildlife.

“The scenery is excellent: Farms and fields, rocky bluffs, and some rapids (the fun kind, not the intimidating kind). You can see plenty of wildlife from the river, as well: Egrets, kingfishers, woodpeckers, turkey and even deer,” Frye wrote. “The Rocky River doesn’t experience significant seasonal fluctuations, so you’ll find good water here year-round.”

How Midland was selected

A few people came together to see that Midland was featured in the article. It all began with Julie Hinson, communications manager at Cabarrus County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

“In my role as a communications manager I travel to different conferences and media receptions throughout the year. I met Jason Frye, who wrote this piece, in Raleigh a few years ago. He and I are friends on Facebook,” Hinson said. “He will post sometimes and say he is working on a story and ask for suggestions.”

Hinson said as soon as Frye posted a Facebook status asking for suggestions on good places to kayak, she thought of Lenny Stallings, co-founder and executive director at Capstone Climbing and Adventure, Inc.

“I had worked with Lenny before with a piece on the Carolina Thread Trail and I knew he knew a lot about kayaking and the river,” Hinson said. “I took a screenshot of the post and connected Frye with Lenny via email. They worked together and set up a call. It was great to see that come through.”

Stallings discovered the Rocky River one day as he was driving.

“The way I knew about the Rocky River is from driving across it. Then I literally sat down with a satellite map with Google Earth and looked into where I thought would be good put ins and take outs,” Stallings said. “Then I called, found out the name of the land owners, got in my vehicle and drove down and introduced myself.”

Stallings began offering kayaking trips down the river via private access. Then when the public access came along, he said the river started gaining more traction and more people visited.

“It’s a really cool piece of river,” Stallings said.

http://www.independenttribune.com/news/midland-featured-on-our-state-s-website/article_9665570c-3d67-11e6-878c-238a831b941a.html