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Monday, August 14, 2006
Lower Mattoponi and Poropotank rivers, VA
With JP working on her skin boat all weekend I decided to throw the camping gear in the pickup and go explore some new
water. I had always heard that the Mattoponi river in VA was a strongly tidal current river, so a check on the tide charts and I was good for a launch at the mouth, heading
upstream on the flood. Chris Conklin's SeMap program helped me locate a ramp across the river from West Point. A roundtrip of 25 miles had me passing several early 18th centurey homesteads and plantations, marshes, and relatively
few houses. The north shore of the river, which is King and Queen County, has a couple of Va. Game Dept public ramps
for use. No launches on the south side except in West Point at a busy ramp.
A consultation of gazetteer and books and I found Rainbow Acres Campground. Mostly summer long RVers, but there is a tenting area in the woods. This would be a good place to paddle in to
camp while doing the Mattaponi some time.
Next day I met up with a fellow club member, Ellen, and we paddled the Poropotank river, which comes off the north
shore of the York a few miles south of West Point. I found this in Andrea Nolan's Sea Kayking Virginia book. We launched at Tanyard landing and headed upstream at the low slack. As the tide flooded with us, we poked into the swamp, the upper end of the
creek, and several side channels. Much wild rice and Ellen finally saw wood ducks. Then back down, past the put
in, to explore another creek a mile or so south. Abut 21 miles of paddling and the sun was setting, the tide
was in full ebb, and it was time to make the drive home. Photos on the recent photo page.
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Click on the photos below to go to the
web pages related to the images.
| Backpacking and Hammocking Pages |
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| Hammocking at Assateague, photo by Ralph |
| West Wight Potter Sailing Pages |
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| Wight Magic |
| Sea Kayaking and Kayak Sailing Pages |
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| Kayak sailing in Delaware, photo by JPW |
The goal in 2006:
Spend more nights outdoors.
So far:
January 7, 27, 31. 3 nights
February 4, 25
2 nights
March 11, 31 2
nights
April 14, 15, 28, 29 4 nights
May 6, 19, 20 3
nights
June 17
1 night
July 7, 8, 23
3 nights
August 12, 26
2 nights
September 7
1 night
October
November
December
TOTAL 21
nights
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