Friday, July 05, 2013 - West Neck Creek
Day two of the kayaking quest.
We launched from West Neck Marina. Last year on the first Friday on July, we paddled here, too.
The launch has a pretty busy power boat clientele so we had to slip in between the launches and retrievals. But we didn't have any problems launching. Much like yesterday, the water was really high, so launching was super easy.
Kate took out the orange Ride 115 and I paddled the Dagger 12.0.
There was some wind in our faces going out. It was probably about 5 - 10 mph but it was nice because it was HOT. And the wind help cool us somewhat.
We found a couple of geocaches along the way. There are lots of side creeks to explore.
Kate paddling the Ride took the opportunity to stand up a bunch of times and paddle standing up. Like I've said previously, the kayak is EXTREMELY stable. Kate even was able to "surf" the waves from the boat wakes a few times. Cowabunga!
We saw a bunch of different Osprey nests again. And even saw one Osprey carrying a good sized fish in its talons. When someone asks you what baby Osprey are made of, the answer is "FISH"!
We reached the end of West Neck Creek and paddled across the North Landing River keeping an eye on the powerboat traffic. There was a combination of the daily boat traffic pulling wakeboarders and floats together with the seasonal transient traffic on the Intracoastal Waterway.
We paddled down the North Landing River to the Nature Conservancy tower at the confluence with the Pocaty River. I can report that all three of us successfully got out of our kayaks and more importantly successfully got back INTO our kayaks at the tower. :) We climbed the steps on the tower and took in the view. From the top of the tower, you can see down the Pocaty River to the west and up and down the North Landing River north and south.
The temperatures had risen to the upper 80's with the heat index about 10 degrees higher. And with no shade, it was smoking hot out there. We head back across and up the North Landing River to West Neck Creek. And of course, on the way back, there was NO WIND!
West Neck Creek is very peaceful and scenic. Even though there had been lots of boats launching and retrieving from the ramp, once on the creek, we were by ourselves most of the time. The fishermen were all back hiding in their secret spots and we had the place seemingly to ourselves.
Four hours and 10 minutes on the water. 6.1 miles on the GPS. Scroll below the pictures to see the track maps.
Day two of the three days successful!! Tune in tomorrow.
Great day!!
Oh and even though Sue went kayaking, it did NOT rain. AGAIN!! Not one drop. It was HOT, HOT, HOT. We could have used a little rain AGAIN!! ;)
