Sunday, August 6, 2017 - Jones Creek - Carollton, VA - Isle of Wight County
Since the weather was still beautiful today and the forecast is for rain for the next several days, I decided to go out again today.
Isle of Wight County just installed a new kayak launch at Carollton Nike Park. The launch was funded in part through the NOAA Coastal Zone Management Program. The park was formerly at Nike Ajax Missile site, but is now a county owned park. The new kayak launch provides access to Jones Creek which connects to the James River above the James River Bridge. i usually prefer to launch from a shoreline or beach, but these accessible launches provide great access in places where that's not an option.
The launch is about a 5 minute walk from the parking lot, so I made sure to bring my kayak cart. The path is paved, though, as it leads to the fishing pier where the kayak launch was built, so it was an easy traverse.
Early Sunday morning is certainly a peaceful time to paddle. Quiet but for the sounds of nature. And smells. This a a saltwater marsh (compared to the fresh water marsh I paddled yesterday) and it definitely had that pleasant, familiar saltwater smell. And you will see in the pictures, it was very calm. In fact, the weather was darn near perfect. Low 80s, low humidity, sunny, a gentle breeze.
I saw lots of birds ... egrets, herons, hawks, and even some BALD EAGLES!!! Very, very cool.
This area is sparsely populated so I saw a few docks and such. And a came across a few duck blinds. No boats or anyone else on the water. I had the creek to myself!
You never know when you go to a new place what exactly to expect, but this was definitely a great paddle.
2 hours and 38 minutes on the water and 5.5 miles on the GPS. Scroll below the pictures to see the track maps.
Edit: Here's the GoPro video .
