Saturday, May 25, 2019 - Baum Road - Smith Creek - Northwest River
​
FIRST KAYAKING TRIP OF THE SEASON!!!
​
The weather around here has been squirrelly this spring. But finally, it was perfect to go out. Literally perfect. Temps in the low 80s, low humidity, not much wind. Perfect.
​
We launched from Baum Road which is a small put-in on the eastern side of Northwest River Park in Chesapeake. This launch is not accessible to powerboats, so it provides for a peaceful paddle ... at least until you get closer to the main river.
​
The water level was fairly low. The first part of the creek was probably less than a foot deep. The water was clear since there hasn't been a lot of rain lately. After rain events, this creek will get muddy looking from soil runoff from the surrounding farm fields. But today it clear but was still the typically darkly stained color from the tannins in the water.
​
We heard lots of birds in the trees but didn't see any until a HUGE blue heron almost took Kate's head off while flying overhead.
​
We passed a couple of folks in kayaking who were heading back to the launch point. They looked pretty casual in their boats.
​
We saw lots of turtles sunning themselves on logs along the creek. And of course, we saw dragonflies all over. These areas are "dragonfly central". I was lucky enough (and it WAS luck) to capture a picture of a dragonfly in mid-flight as it was checking out a turtle on a log.
​
Later, a dragonfly landed on my hand and stayed there for quite a while. Pretty cool.
​
Once we reached the main part of the Northwest River, we encountered a lot of powerboats. People were out fishing, waterskiing, and just enjoying the day.
​
Great day on the water. Great day to be outside in any capacity. This was the first kayaking trip of the season, so we took it easy but we felt great. We got some sun, shook off the rust, and really had a good time.
​
2.5 hours on the water and 4.8 miles on the GPS. Scroll below the pictures to see the track map.
