Saturday, September 07, 2019 - Shingle Creek - Northwest River
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Well, we survived Hurricane Dorian yesterday with no adverse impacts. We had 25 - 30 mph winds and probably 2 - 3 inches of rain over about an 18 hour period from Thursday night through Friday afternoon. Thankfully, no major damage or flooding locally.
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As typically happens, once the hurricane (low pressure) left the area, the weather left behind was spectacular. Temps in the low to mid 80s. Low humidity. No wind.
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So, I decided to get a few hours on the water. I went down to Shingle Landing which is just over the Virginia-North Carolina state line in Moyock, North Carolina. There's a small boat ramp in the back of a neighborhood that provides access to Shingle Creek. Shingle Creek is a tributary of the Northwest River.
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I took the Dagger Axis which is a sit-inside kayak instead of the Wilderness Ride which is a sit-on-top kayak. The Dagger is great to paddle. It paddles very easily and smoothly.
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The water was a bit muddy looking at the start of the paddle possibly due to yesterday's rain, but otherwise, the creek and the river were pretty clean. The Shingle Landing boat ramp is pretty heavily used, and today was no exception. A number of boats passed me both going out and coming in, but all of them were very respectful and slowed way down as they passed.
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I was greeted on the creek by a very large Great Pyrenees dog. He was quite loud, but not aggressive. And he "greeted" all the boats that passed.
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Most of the creek was not clogged with underwater vegetation. I wasn't until I got into the very small creek that looped on the west side of the marsh grasses that the vegetation got really thick. But with the Dagger kayak, I just was able to glide right through it.
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I paddled all the way up to the Virginia-North Carolina state line as I looped through the marsh. The river opens up quite a bit there and lots of boats were out there boating and fishing.
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This is a really good place to paddle. Lots of options of different creeks to explore allowing as long or as short of a paddle as you want.
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It was a great, great day on the water.
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2 hours and 40 minutes on the water and 5.4 miles on the GPS. Scroll below the pictures to see the track map.
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