My friend Mike Moody had been after me for a long time to come down and paddle with him in the coastal marshes around Darien, GA, so I decided to organize a mid-November sea kayak camping trip to an off-shore island. Mike suggested a place called Queen Island, which is located on Doboy Sound, SW of Sapelo and NW of Little St Simons Islands. Besides me and Mike there was my wife, Meg, and Lonnie McBride, Will Hazelhurst, Belita Gordon, and John Reebers. We drove down to Darien Friday night and stayed at the Fort King George Motel, an establishment with a name much grander than its accommodations. Saturday morning, after breakfasting at the Pizza Place (really) we all met at Mike's place, Altamaha Wilderness Outpost, and put on at the Darien shrimp docks at the last hour of the incoming tide. Everyone was in a plastic sea kayak, all Perceptions except for Belita's Necky. The plan was to paddle down river on the ebb tide, camp on Queen, and come back up on the flood then next morning. Mike projected the trip at about 3 hours. He was wrong, of course. The trip was relaxing and scenic. About 1 mile down, we came to a long dike that dates back to the 18th century rice farming days. It encloses an area of hundreds of acres, with the water level regulated by simple cannon valves. I watched a fisherman land a plate-sized flounder over the tops of four big blue crabs. I was tempted to stay there and collect the makings of a great dinner, but we had miles to go, and anyhow I had forgotten my crab net. After the dike, there is no dry land until you get to Queen, which means that the relief opportunities are limited. Most sea kayakers have developed a variety of techniques to deal with this problem, but all of our group was iron-bladdered enough to not need them. Except for Mike, who found a small shell bank and got out to pee and was instantly beset by a couple of thousand no-see-ums. John and I had contemplated doing the same until we observed Mike's waving and cursing. Even sitting in the boats 6 feet off shore we attracted a cloud of gnats. For the record, you can't outrun them in a sea kayak, but eventually they seem to lose interest. At about halfway, we branched onto the Rockadunney River, so as to come out on the southern side of Queen. Around 4:00, we arrived at Queen, so figure 5 hours in the boat. My GPS said we were 8 miles from the put-in, but considering the meanders, we estimated we had paddled about 12. Will had been down a few days before, and had cleared a campsite. The camping opportunities are limited, as Queen is mostly marsh, with only a thin strip of sand and scrub running around its southeastern shore. Unfortunately, the shore in front of the best camping spot is not beach, but oyster beds and small mud bluffs, so you have to come in elsewhere and carry down a few hundred yards. There was only a few inches of surf, so the landing was easy. By the time we had set up camp, cooked, and eaten dinner, it was dark. You could see the Sapelo light off to the Northeast. We knew that's what it was because we had seen the candy- striped lighthouse during the day. I was in bed by 8:00, which severely disappointed about 10,000 mosquitos, but I think a few of us stayed up late to feed them. The next morning dawned clear and cool. We were back on the water about 9:30, looping up around the east and north sides of the island. On the way in, we paddled past a few ballast islands. These are quite impressive piles, perhaps a half acre each, composed of the discarded ballast rocks that the old sailing ships carried from Europe. I marveled at how disciplined they had been to dump the rocks all in the same spot. A couple of the islands are currently graced by ramshackle cabins, which Mike claims are habitable, or may be in the future. The phrase "any port in a storm" comes to mind. Near one island, a fisherman in a powerboat had just landed a good-sized sheephead. He proudly displayed it and showed us the fish's teeth, which it uses to eat barnacles, shells and all. Any orthodontist would have been proud of that mouth of teeth. The trip back upriver was uneventful, except for having to dodge shrimp trawlers. We had hoped to ride the tide, but it turned when we were still a couple of miles out, and so the last bit was slow going. Belita graciously allowed me to practice my towing skills, but she kept paddling, so mostly I didn't really do anything. Will claimed to have seen a gator, and I'm sure I heard one entering the water, but we didn't see any other animals. We did see great blue herons and wood storks, though, and of course gulls and pelicans. Oh, and half a dozen dolphins, which are always a thrill. Steve *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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