Rebecca and I have cleaned up and re-rigged our kayaks, finished our home-made kayak trailer, and have scouted put-ins for the North and South Anna Rivers north of Richmond, and the Nottoway River south of Richmond.  I'm new to artifact collecting.  In your experience, do you have better results on river banks, or besides the smaller creeks?

There are some famous artifact localities on the Nottoway River, so I might 'just happen' to need to beach the kayak and stretch my legs near there. Also, one of the Nottoway's major feeder creeks is named Rocky Creek, apparently for good reason because it runs over the Petersburg Granite and is said to have lots of loose rocks in the streambed.  I'm thinking easy-picking rocks might have been useful to the people of old, even if the cobbles were not knapping material.

Artifact-wise, I know less about the North and South Anna Rivers, but these form some of the most scenic valleys in the region.  While scouting put-ins we would be driving through the usual ho-hum piedmont or coastal plain landforms, then drop into the river valleys and, wow, who knew this was here?  (Answer: the locals but they aren't telling.)

Any comments or suggestions are appreciated!

I don't know if one is better than the other, Tim.
Like Fire said, you are mainly looking for the gravel bars,
and lots of those are at the mouths of creeks.
I haven't heard much about the Anna either, but I know there are some
good sites along the Nottoway.
And I think somewhere along Rocky Creek is a source for Virginias' version of Coastal Plain Chert. Bolins Store chert or something like that.

Sounds like a lot of fun.
Does Rebecca know what poison ivy looks like?

As for poison ivy, I'm most likely to catch that.  And we both know what Tecnu looks like!

Did you ever notice that poison ivy clusters the thickest around where man makes a visible path?  Boat docks.  Green spaces in neighborhoods.  Official trails.  But get off the path, and it's not as common.  Interesting.

Here's one for you Joe:

Caladryl works for real!

cheers,
rhyming r