[Paddlewise] muck

a while back there were a few postings about kayak traveling in coastal
areas with muddy shorelines. as i remember, the postings were from New
England and the Pacific northwestern states.

yesterday i introduced a New Yorker to Chesapeake bay muck. we launched in a
remote area of Virginia's eastern shore. shoreline marshes and small islands
along the sound - white sand bottom with some SAV (submerged aquatic
vegetation) that was at the end of it's growing season and starting to break
loose and move with the currents.

after awhile we landed on a small sandy beached island so that we could
swim. due to shoals surrounding the island, we walked down a spit towards a
channel leading into the marsh... there the beach dropped off sharply. as we
headed into the water, toe deep... ankle deep... thigh deep! what? SAV had
been carried into the channel and covered by a venire of sand, which gave
way easily...so there we were in muck that had the sweet smell of sulfur and
was loose as a goose. i suppose that's an early stage of oil. at any rate,
the water was deep enough that we could swim out from the pool of black
decaying stuff.... the black between my teeth ain't chewing tobacco.

bye bye bliven


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