Saturday, June 25, 2016 - Pungo Ferry Road - North Landing River
Shaking off the dust and rust ...
First real kayaking trip of the season!! And we even remembered how to put the kayaks on the Element. :)
We launched from Old Pungo Ferry Road. It's the perfect spot to kick off the season. The City of Virginia Beach has purchased the old Captain George's site at the end of the road and is in the process of making it into a City park complete with a boat ramp. But for now, it's closed off and we launched from the "beach" to the left. I can't wait to see what the city does with the park when they are finished.
You can see in the first picture that the boat that has been tied up here for over a year is still there and seems to be even more entrenched. We spotted an electrical cord running from the boat to somewhere on shore. I shudder to think what the resident has been doing with the holding tanks all this time. Ewwwwww! ;) We had to ease our way under the lines which he has tied to the old pilings effectively blocking the access. But we made it through.
Since we were just shaking off the dust and checking things out, we just went across the river to the first oxbow. The water level was fairly high, and we were able to go into the oxbow marsh and paddle around. It was pretty windy and very cloudy but not nearly as menacing as the pictures make it look.
There were a number of boats out going in both directions on the Intracoastal Waterway. We even saw a sailboat under sail ... which is an unusual sight there. I suspect that he was under power, as well, based upon his speed.
We paddled up one of the cut ditches and checked out the sights there. We came across what looked tree stands in some of the trees. Do people hunt back here? And from a tree stand? Kate was on the look out for snakes, but none were to be seen. I did see a very peculiar log that very much resembled an alligator. I had to do a double-take. ;)
We then went into the old marina area to check out the new construction that is being done. They are building some pretty substantial docking structures.
Great first trip. Can't wait to get back out there!
An hour and half on the water and 3 miles on the GPS. Scroll below the pictures to see the track map.
