My paddling buddies and I are researching kayak trips of worth on the east US coast. We are Mainers, and as such, are used to paddling cool water all year round. We'd love to take a vacation this summer for a week, but are chomping at the bit for warmer ocean water, sandy beaches, uncrowded camping spots, and anything else that would make for a memorable trip. We don't mind driving 12 to 20 hours to get there, so... I guess that would get us as far south as Georgia. We thought that perhaps the N.Carolina Outer Banks might be a bit too crowded, a tad windy, might have a bit too much uniformity of landscape, and maybe too much shallow water. That was just an impression from reading comments on various web sites. If you can suggest places that we should investigate online, or if you know about or have had experience with great east coast locations, we'd appreciate your suggestions. Web site recommendations are also welcome. Thanks very much! TomL *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
> My paddling buddies and I are researching kayak trips of > worth on the east > US coast. Me too. I'd like to have a library of pre-planned trips up and down the right coast that I can draw from over the next few years. > We are Mainers I've been gathering info on Maine for two years. I hope to make that trip in September of 2003. Likely candidate is Acadia - just got my guide book to Mount Desert Island yesterday. > warmer ocean water, sandy beaches, uncrowded > camping spots, and anything else that would make for a memorable trip. > > We don't mind driving 12 to 20 hours to get there, so... I > guess that would > get us as far south as Georgia. Sounds about right. From the lower east corner of Virginia, it's about 14-15 hours to Acadia and about 8 down to Atlanta, so depending on where you are in Maine, you might get to Georgia in 20, barring road construction, congestion, weather, and so forth. > We thought that perhaps the > N.Carolina > Outer Banks might be a bit too crowded, a tad windy, might > have a bit too > much uniformity of landscape, and maybe too much shallow > water. That was > just an impression from reading comments on various web sites. The OBX is only about 2 hours from my home, and I've spent a week there during the summer, since... well, seems like forever. Probably since about 1976. For the last few years, I've taken my kayak (started kayaking in February of 2000) and done a fair amount of exploring. Here's a quick synopsis. Lots and lots of nice sandy beaches with dunes. There are a couple of private campgrounds, and also some National ones. The one that comes to mind first is right at Bodie Inlet and the campground is in the dunes, not more than 100 yards "ish" from the beach. The 20"ish" mile stretch of land that is basically Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, Nags Head is the main tourist area, so the beaches will be "well occupied", but "crowded" depends on what you are used to. It's far less congested than, say Virginia Beach, but if you cross the Bodie inlet bridge, you'll have the place almost to yourself. As you look up and down the beach, you may see 5-10 other people. There's no development in that area, and it's park property. Regarding water depth - yep, it's shallow. I don't even paddle Pea Island anymore because I got tired of sticking my paddle blade in the mud with every other stroke. But, at other areas, you have a good 5 feet of water, and in places much more. That's all on the sound side - the ocean gets deeper. But, it isn't like Mount Desert Island in Acadia, where I see on the charts that the water can drop to clsoe to 100 feet within 50-100 yards of shore. There are tons of places to paddle down there. I've done 7-8 locations, and haven't even scratched the surface. Lots of it will be around sand dunes or marsh areas, but there are also places that are wooded and so forth - of course, the wooded areas are local rivers and such - not the ocean. If you go to Alligator River, you might get lucky and spot of few gators. There aren't many, but I can atest to the fact that they are there. I spent an hour a couple years ago waiting for one to leave the launch spot. It never did, so I left. The spot was only about 5 feet wide and it was sunning itself right in the middle of it. The wind can get high at times, and dead calm at others. If it's too windy for your tastes, there are plenty of protected areas where you can wind your way through mazes of islands, spending hours exploring. If you go in the summer, it can be hot. Last August, we had numerous days in the high 90's and low 100's , even before the heat index jacked up the temperatures. Take lots of water. Anyway, I've done some trip reports for the past two years, each one addressing three paddling destinations, complete with maps, logistics, some pics, and so forth. If you are interested, I can send them to you as attachments. > If you can suggest places that we should investigate online, > or if you know > about or have had experience with great east coast locations, we'd > appreciate your suggestions. Web site recommendations are > also welcome. My "home" waters are the Chesapeake Bay, which as I'm sure yo know is quite large. I've concentrated my paddling around Poquoson, where I have 3-4 good launch sites within 5 minutes of my home. But, there are lots of great places to paddle. Up in the Maryland, Delaware sections, there is a paddling group called CPA (Chesapeake Paddlers Association) that is quite large, quite active, and have what they call "Pirate" clubs spread out all over the place, so they cover a large geographic area. They have a web-site, and a disccussion forum similar to this one. If you have any interest in paddling the Bay, I'd check them out. There are a number of camp sites (private, state and National) in all types of terrain. This year, I plan on doing a weekend trip to Janes Island (Md State park) at the VA/MD boarder on the Bay side of the Eastern Shore, and I'd like to check out the "Ghost Fleet" at Mallows Bay, on the Potomac River and camp onthe Virginia side at Eastmoreland State Park. I might also do a weekend at Kiptopeake State Park on the southern tip of the Eastern Shore. Here are a few web sites. http://www.cpakayaker.com/ http://www.seakayak.ws/ http://www.baygateways.net/visiting/ There are lots of neat places in NC, SC and GA, but I can't speak about them first hand. I'll leave that to others who claim the areas as their "home waters". By the way, if you get any good info back channel, It would be great if you could forward it to me as well. As I said earlier, I'm building a library of future trips. Rick - Poquoson, VA *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
--- Rick.Sylvia_at_ferguson.com wrote: > Me too. I'd like to have a library of pre-planned > trips up and down the right coast that I can draw > from over the next few years. I an very interested in that sort of thing too. If need be I would be willing to put this up on a web site rather than let it go to waste after it is gathered. I maintain a couple web pages so one more wouldn't be much extra effort. If you have questions about the upper or middle Chesapeake bay, I may be be able to help. Most of my experience on the bay comes from sailing rather than paddling though. Pete __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
At 09:10 AM 1/23/2003 -0500, Rick.Sylvia_at_ferguson.com wrote: > > My paddling buddies and I are researching kayak trips of > > worth on the east > > US coast. > >Me too. I'd like to have a library of pre-planned trips up and down the >right coast that I can draw from over the next few years. <snip a bunch> >Rick - Poquoson, VA Rick, et al, I was up at Cape Charles and Kiptopeke Beach a couple of weeks ago nosing around and picking up a travel trailer to bring back home. I was really turned off by the Kiptopeke state park rules of limited beach access to a good bit of the park waterfront under the auspices of "humans damage beaches". It does have an excellent ramp and protected beach launching areas though. That said, I would like to be copied on any info anybody gathers on the ocean side of the Virginia eastern shore. There must be literally a thousand or more miles of ocean marshes and beaches to explore out there. I know that one of the local outfitters conducts day and overnight tours out there but I'm not into guided stuff. Also, I'm not very interested in the Chincoteague/Assateague area. Too commercialized and regulated. Please keep me in mind if you will. I've only done some map reading research of the ocean side of the Eastern Shore so far. I do plan some reconnoitering in the near future. Dave G. <the other Poquoson, Va paddler ;-) > *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Hi Rick, I haven't read "Exploring Flatwater" but I have looked at reviews of it on various websites. Seems to be a book I should get. The reviews have the same "suspicions" you have. I do have a book called "Sea Kayaking Along The Mid-Atlantic Coast" (New York to Chesapeake Bay) and it's fairly interesting. It has two tours on the Eastern Shore, one bayside and one ocean side. I think I'll get a chart of the ES and see what else may be possible. Thanks for the info about Merchant's Millpond. I haven't done that area. In fact, I haven't done anything beyond what I could reach from Poquoson Marina. I just got tie down stuff for my van so I'm looking to expand my horizons as the weather warms up. I especially want to do the canal and Lake Drummond from Rt 17 in the near future. I would like to see your trip report if it's not to much of a problem to forward it to me. Dave At 10:41 AM 1/24/2003 -0500, Rick wrote: >Will do. Have you looked at the book called "Exploring Flatwater"? It's >not a great book, but it does have a chapter on the Eastern Shore, with >somewhere around 7-8 Ocean side trips. Ben, at the Kayak store up by >Super-K, carries it - at least he did a year ago. It's about $15. > >Some of the info inthe book is "suspect", though. I read sections for >routes that I was familiar with, and wasn't impressed at all. In fact, I >thought some of it was flat out wrong. > >If you find anything good, let me know, and I'll do likewise. Speaking of >which, have you done Merchants Millpond in Gates County, NC? It's only a >66 mile drive from Poquoson, and is a neat place. Lots of Cypress and >tupelo trees, Spanish Moss, tons of turtles, ducks, Geese, Beavers, >Otters, and even a few alligators. It's attached to Lassiter Swamp at the >far end, which is also neat. The swamp has a channel through it that is >passible but requires a number of easy portages to get past some beaver >damns. You can't paddle out of the channeel, though, and it's a little >tricky to find if yo don't have a good idea where it is. I've got a trip >report with a map and photos if you have an interest in it. > >Rick > *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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