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Monday, August 28, 2006
Pamunkey and Mattaponi weekend - where the locals tan.
Another weekend where JP has non-kayaking obligations. So I paddle the Pamunkey river - doing the West Island/Thoroughfare
circumnavigation, and explore some of the creeks.
It was a hot day, and I took a break in the river by getting out of the boat mid channel and floating for a while with
the boat tethered to me with about eight feet of line. Just lying there cooling off. Had several bass boats go
by, but none even looked twice at the guy in the water and the empty kayak.
The area around West Island is a very nice area. Especially up Big Creek. Paddling up on the remains of the
ebb tide I saw what I thought was an animal swimming across the creek, maybe muskrat, beaver, etc. Getting up closer
to it, it turned out to be the tip of the tail fin of the biggest Gar I have ever seen. It was working back and forth
in the ebb current facing upstream. I paddled up alongside, and with it's snout about at my bow, the tail was at my
water bladder on the front deck, making it conservatively six feet long, and swimming in about 4-6 feet of water. I
watched it for a bit, then couldn't resist - I reached down with the paddle tip and touched it. Kabloom! The fish
reacts, bites my greenland paddle, and takes off in a huge wash of wake. I'm upright, but looking at the tip of my paddle,
which is now missing a small piece on one edge and has teeth marks in it. Guess I'll write an article
for the club magazine on how to repair bitten paddles...
Night at Rainbow Acres, and the next day a paddle from Walkerton downstream on the ebb and back on the flood tide.
Two more well timed paddle trips and I'll have done all of the Mattaponi from VA 360 to West Point. Coming back
into the ramp at Walkerton ($3 to launch, owned by the Vol. Fire Dept and a very nice set of ramps), I spotted a aluminum
boat coming into the ramp with me. Three nice locals, who liked the idea of me taking this photo of thier boat:
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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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