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Paddling Journal December 2003 Last month of the year. What a year it has been! Trips this month: 6
12/1/03
After a week on the gulf it was kind of nice to be back in my backyard. After a long night of football and writing and then a way too early appointment this morning and some more football writing I was a bit sore but felt like it would be good to get out and do some light paddling. I got in the water after it had warmed up from an overnight low in the low 40's. It was warm enough to go without my spray skirt and almost too warm to wear my fleece. I wasn't in too much of a mood for a long paddle so I just started to wind my way through some of the smaller streams that wind through the western edge of the big pool. I tried on several occasions to sneak up on the Hooded Mergansers that are now wintering in the marsh but the shy little buggers are just too skittish so I gave up on that idea and headed over to the old cedar to hang out and drink a beer. As I approached, I saw that it was occupied by a lone Tri-Color and I was able to position myself in the grass a few feet away from him and slowly pull myself toward him using the grass on either side of the boat. Each time I moved he eyed me warily but as long as I made no sudden moves he was content to stay put. It was fun to be so close to him for such a long period of time and with the breeze blowing from behind him it gave him a very odd look. I finally ran out of memory space and he took the opportunity to move on. After that I headed out to the ICW and then down to the old marina and then back to the truck. Good to be home. See the Pictures From This Trip
12/12/03
I haven't been able to make it back to Pumpkin Hill creek since early last July so with a mid-day tide I thought it would be a good time to make a trip up there. The overnight lows were in the upper 30's but by the time I got to the put-in it was probably very close to 50 degrees. Still plenty cold enough to don my winter gear and get out the spray skirt. I set out about 11:00 and headed for Tiger Point. The water was like glass and the sky was gorgeous. One of the things I always love about the Pumpkin Hill area is the skies there are always such a treat and today was no different. The usual cornucopia of birdlife that was present in my trips this summer was missing but there were quite a few of the shy Mergansers that are omnipresent in the marsh each winter. As usual, they were nearly impossible to photograph but I tried anyway. I headed west from Tiger Point and decided to investigate a branch of Edwards Creek that heads south toward Cedar Point Road. There are about a dozen houses along the bank of the creek and I believe that they are along the road called Spring Hammock road which is off of Boney. That stream goes a long way back into the woods and I didn't feel like following it all the way to the end so I turned back and headed back to Tiger Point with the tide starting to head back out. I stopped to rest at Tiger Point before heading on back to the truck. See the Pictures From This Trip
12/18/03 My schedule got changed at work so that I could attend a school offsite and as a result I have been getting off a little earlier each day. Today the tides coincided with my getting off time so I hit the water around 4:00 p.m. It was a clear, beautiful day but it was a lot breezier than I expected. The wind was out of the southwest at around 15-20 knots and that put it at my back as I headed for the old cedar. The wind rendered photography almost impossible as I had no way to stow my paddle without the wind taking it away from me and the water and wind tended to numb my fingers a little as well. It didn't matter too much since the birds were cowering out of sight for the most part anyway. I stopped at the old cedar for a while and then headed out to the ICW where I then headed south to the old marina and then back west to my truck. Once I got back into the large open area next to the road I was headed directly into the teeth of the wind and the current. I so I just dug in and paddled toward the setting sun.
12/24/03
My wonderful timing in life came into play again this week when I finally succumbed to the flu bug I have been fighting off for the last month and it hit me on the first day of my two week vacation. It didn't keep me from attending Mark Brunell's last game as a Jaguar with a 102 degree fever but it made me miss two fairly glorious days early in the week as I tried to get over it. I felt a bit weak and a lot congested but I was also starting to get in one of my "Ishmaelly" moods so "down to the water I went." It was kind of odd out there. I could see from the steam coming from SJRPP that there had to be at least a 20 knot wind pushing the plume to an angle nearly perpendicular to the ground and yet at Hannah Mills there was not a breath of wind and the water was like glass. As soon as I got in the water I saw some Mergansers and decided to see if the incoming current would allow me to sneak up on them. I got close a couple of times but the little buggers are so small and quick that it will be a miracle if anything was in focus. I was unsure of where to go exactly but I headed north on my usual path and as I approached the first Sea Daisy Island I saw an object surface about 30 yards ahead me, just offshore from the little island. It appeared as though there was a slick body snaking along behind it and my first thought was that it was the little friend I saw out here last March - "Blondie" the otter, so named because of his musty yellow fur. I started taking pictures and then began to think I was just seeing some trash floating toward me. As we got closer to each other I could finally see clearly that the "trash" had two very distinct round ears and a face that was intently staring at me as we got close. Once we got within 15 yards of each other he disappeared under the surface. I watched his bubbles approach my boat and then disappear underneath where I lost track of him. I saw him one more time before losing him for good. I took a leisurely tack toward the ICW, taking a more northerly approach than usual and I came out just above our original camp site on the east bank. I decided to check out the island just to the north of that one and found it to be pretty suitable for camping with a little clearing. It doesn't appear that anyone else has used it so it is very clean. As I sat on the bank eating an energy bar, I could tell that the wind begun moving eastward and the waterway was beginning to get choppy. When I headed back I was going into the brunt of it as well as an outgoing tide but it wasn't too difficult. Although the wind inland was obviously much more intense, out in the marsh it never seemed to much more than 10 knots. Once I got back into the main pool, I spotted a Tri-Color in the grass and decided to sneak up on him. Surprisingly, he tolerated my presence for 15 minutes as I watched him groom himself before I headed back to the truck. See the Pictures From This Trip
12/29/03
What great weather! A balmy 70 degrees and no wind on December 29th! I set out from Cedar Point and decided to head back to the same area I visited on 11/17/03. From that point I headed southwest until I was in Clapboard Creek just to the northeast of Pinders Island and then followed the feeder creek that runs due north into a group of islands to the south of Cedar Point. I've visited these islands before back in '01and thought that it would be a nice trip to visit them again. After hanging out for a while it started to get a little buggy so I started to head back and decided to head back out into Clapboard and then take the feeder that cuts across the marsh and hooks back up with Cedar Point. It was a pretty uneventful trip until just before I reached my truck when a lone dolphin surfaced nearby ao I followed him for a while. See the Pictures From This Trip
12/31/03 Just a quickie on the final day of the year. I had been cooped up all week due to the remodeling and so I took advantage of a break in the action to get one final one in. Not much in the way of photo ops. Just a little circuit to the ICW and back. Happy New Year! |
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