Category Archives: kayaking

Peaceful Sunday Kayak

09 Sunday Jul 2017

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Headed up to Deer Creek early this morning for an early kayak adventure. Not a lot of people there, which is the way we like it. Some people fishing off the bank. We saw lots of fish way up stream.

Heading up stream. Fisher-people to the right, casting in our direction.

Something swam across our path. I thought it was a beaver at first…

it was this raccoon. He swam to this side to get a drink!

There were so many red-winged blackbirds. What a variety of sounds they make! Mullein plant to the left. We did see a couple hawks, but they were too far up in the tree for me to get a good shot. I usually just take my underwater camera when kayaking. it doesn’t have a good telephoto lens on it.

Speaking of underwater – I just stuck it under, next to the kayak and saw a bunch of trout.

You do have to pay attention for the submerged logs.

Kathy collecting for our souvenirs. Only had to get out twice for shallow water. Water felt good.

This was as far as we were able to go – too shallow. Almost 2 miles up. You can practically drift all the way back to the mill.

Odd looking cocoon. Three leaves weaved together to make a pouch. Like a pea pod. There were a bunch in this tree.

Pretty little flowers.

Glad we went early. A crowd showed up. Nice day enjoying ourselves, nature and God.

Half Moon Cay (but I think it is pronounced key??)

07 Wednesday Jun 2017

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The next part of our Bahama Cruise was to a private island. Reading some history of this place, it was originally called Little San Salvador. It was purchased in 1997 by Holland American Line. It is a wild bird reserve and tourist play spot.

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The cruise ship drops anchor and a tender comes to take you ashore.

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Welcome! Thank you, glad we made it!

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Not sure if this was a real fort or not?

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Waiting to catch a bus to the other side of the island for some adventure!

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The upper right of this map is our destination.

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The bus dropped us off and now we are waiting for our tour guide to give us an ecological tour. I’m so excited!

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And the roosters in the tree are excited!

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And we are off – heading towards land over yonder.

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Nice group of us on the tour. Kathy kept them smiling. I will say though, it is a little hard kayaking in a two person kayak. I kept hitting Kathy’s paddle.

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About here is where the guy next to us fell out of his kayak.

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Everyone was picking him up and holding him (or her).

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Under our feet were thousands of these jelly fish. Our guide picks one up and says, don’t worry, they won’t sting you. Well, it stung this little girl that was with her father. He was pissed and she was pretty much done for the rest of the journey. Poor kid.

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After kayaking we headed to the beach for a while. Rental bungalows.

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A bar disguised as a pirate ship. Is nothing sacred?

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My sentiments exactly.

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Time to just chill and enjoy…

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…or you can swim out and watch your girlfriend look for sea glass.

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Walked around some; this guy was making a lot of noise.

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Interesting but kind of weird.

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The only thing you should leave when visiting a place like this…

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We leave you in peace.

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Nice night to snuggle on deck and watch Jason Bourne! Yes!

 

Time To Retire Yet?

06 Monday Feb 2017

Posted by in Hiking, kayaking, Recovery

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Every time I go to the Eastern Shore with Kathy, I get this gnawing feeling in my gut, telling me it’s time to retire and move down here. It is just so peaceful.

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Daydreaming with the moon and the windmill.

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Little streams every where. Not big enough for a kayak, but a reminder that there are larger ones around…

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Even just watching the nails back out of the boards they hold up, gives a sense of peacefulness, not found where I am today.

I know that peace comes from the work we do with our spiritual selves. That Peace can come no matter where you are. But for me, I can get too distracted with the busyness of my work and everything around me in the city. It’s bad enough I have never learned through meditation how to quiet my mind and listen to that ‘Still Small Voice’ within. Rock and Roll oldies still play in my head, like them or not! That is why I started to hike years ago and in the last year or so, taken up kayaking; to help quiet my mind. No matter where I go, there I am…but when I’m down the shore, it feels good – physically, mentally and spiritually.

Random

30 Wednesday Nov 2016

Posted by in Hiking, HISTORY, kayaking, Photography

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 NASSAWANGO IRON FURNACE:From 1828-1850 the Nassawango Iron Furnace was in its heyday. Many workers – miners, sawyers, colliers, molders, draymen, and bargemen – labored to make iron. They gathered bog ore from Nassawango swamp, brought clam and oyster shells up the canal via the Pocomoke River from the Chesapeake Bay, and made charcoal in the Pocomoke Forest. These raw materials were loaded into the Iron Furnace from the top, heated to 3,000 degrees, and the two resulting liquids were drawn off at the bottom of the furnace. Slag was cooled and tossed into the swamp. Iron was poured into molds and loaded onto barges which were towed down the canal by mule to waiting ships for transport to Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York.

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It was closed! Closed on October 31st.

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Left there and went to Milburn Landing on the Pocomoke. Glad I don’t have to rake all those leaves!

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The landing. A couple reviews I read said it doesn’t get crowded. Kayak time!

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After that we found an abandoned golf course – Nassawango. The club house.

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Leader board?

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I prefer Putt-Putt

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But I don’t remember seeing one of these at Putt-Putt? Ball warmer?

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Then heading back to the farm we spotted a couple eagles – and this is why I’m not an animals in nature photographer!

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Inside the barn. Nice visit with Kathy’s family.

Dundee Creek

30 Friday Sep 2016

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After our vacation to the Eastern Shore, we returned to one of our favorite kayaking spots – Dundee Creek. My first time there was to paddleboard. I did not like that at all. Just couldn’t find my center of balance and I kept falling off. The following week, Kathy showed me about kayaking. I had never done that before. I enjoy it immensely! So peaceful and relaxing. Dundee Creek merges with Saltpeter Creek and then into the Gunpowder River and then onto the Chesapeake Bay.

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Before heading out to open water, we always like to head into the cove. Calm waters that dead-end at a stream and bulkhead.

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As many times that we have been here, neither one of us noticed this little opening.

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Nice and quiet. Looks like some logs up to the right.

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I went up and moved them out of the way.

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Kathy was then able to pass under the trees, along the shoreline.

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Once through, I let Kathy go first – you know, in case there were alligators, wild boars or Adrienne Barbeau.

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We found our own little cove. Not very big but nice.

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After a while there, we headed out towards Marshy Point. This is the Marshy Point Osprey Cam. It is shut down now – the osprey have all headed south. This is fun to watch when they come back. So is the Osprey Cam on the Chesapeake Bay.

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Favorite little foot bridge at Marshy Point Nature Center.

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Under the bridge we go.

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After the bridge and spending time watching life in the marsh, we headed back to the marina. Water was getting a little choppy. Duck blind.

Vac Pics #3

23 Friday Sep 2016

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The next day we were off to Assateague Island for more kayaking

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We entered the water at the beach, end of Ferry Landing Rd. Got there before the crowds did.

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We headed north and hit a dead end, turned around and went south – lots of little islands and coves.

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Lots of these guys around.

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Tree as we headed back north on the other side of the first section.

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Old duck blind

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Heading towards the beach.

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The beach is at the end of the “Life of the Marsh Boardwalk”.

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Not sure what that guy was. Hard to get good photographs on a kayak. I also don’t care for this new camera of mine. Fuji underwater camera.

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Make sure you wear your shoes when getting out of the kayak.

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Kathy and I are the Great Adventurers!

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Island life.

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Foamy beach on the other side of the beach we landed on.

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Fluffy and soft

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Horses down where the first egret was. Like I said – hard to get a good shot on a kayak with a camera I don’t like.

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Leaving the park. Another nice adventure!

 

Vac Pics #2

22 Thursday Sep 2016

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After returning from Ocean City, we loaded up the kayaks and headed to Goat Island on the Pocomoke River, Snow Hill Md. Byrd Park was nicely deserted and the water was calm.

It was high tide. The water was up the ramp into the parking lot.

And there she be – Goat Island.

What have we here? Goat’s name and address?

It was about a 1/2 mile paddle to circumnavigate the island – I felt like Magellan!

Goat house – but no goat. Didn’t see a single goat. Well, to be fair, I think there is only one living there.

After the island we headed to the Rte. 12 drawbridge. No going under that. You need to give them a five hour notice to have it raised.

On the other side there is a kayak rental place. There were quite a few people on that side (we saw them as we were crossing back over the bridge leaving)

Heading down or was it up? the river.

Buoy markers, open water and lilly-pads is what we pretty much saw for the near three hours we were out there. And that was fine by me. Peaceful.

Although a smell did lead us here – the waste water treatment plant.

Vacation

18 Sunday Sep 2016

Posted by in Hiking, kayaking, vacation, Writing

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Best vacation in a long time!

Ocean City for a couple days: Sun, dolphins, 11th floor balcony door opened – listening to the pounding of the surf on the beach, watching the sunrise and sunset, Thrasher Fries, junk food, good food, 9/11 memorial, biker week …

Snow Hill for kayaking at Goat Island, saw no goats but was a great adventure…

Assateague Island for more kayaking and hiking through water onto beaches…

Fishing off Deal Island (caught a lot of variety including crabs and a skate), boat around other islands…Princess Anne for dinner and historic tour…

Crisfield then to Smith Island…

Home. Great vacation except for two unpleasantries – daughter needs brain surgery and “service engine soon” light came on in truck.

Photos later..

 

Mariners Point Park

17 Wednesday Aug 2016

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Nice Sunday morning kayaking trip. Thanks to EFF30 for the recommendation. What I like about this is that the Little Gunpowder Falls, the Big Gunpowder Falls and the Gunpowder River all converge here.

Entrance into the park

There’s a little black squirrel in the park today…

One of the many fishing piers

Nice boat ramp. I like that it is marked as enter and exit…not that everybody pays attention…

Many heron

Another one

Grounded Buoy.

Ducks

Kathy trying her darndest to make wakes!

And another.

After paddling around the coves we headed to the RR bridge.

I think Amtrak needs a bridge inspector in a kayak

Me.

Besides heron, there were many osprey to be seen.

And the Rains Came

02 Tuesday Aug 2016

Posted by in Baltimore, Hiking, kayaking

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We went out for a bit on Saturday night, during the down-pour. We knew it was raining hard and steady but had no idea of the amount of rain. Loch Raven Dam is back to overflowing and I would imagine the other two reservoirs are full as well. It will take a lot of citizen usage and lack of rainfall, for quite a few months, to head us into a drought situation.
On Sunday morning we decided to head out, search and find new places to put our kayaks in. Hot and steamy in Baltimore, but still a nice day to explore new places. Neither one of us had seen the news yet.
Our first stop was at Broening Park, which I always thought was called Middlebranch Park. According to Google maps, Broening is DNR property and Middlebranch is City of Baltimore, Rec and Parks property. They are divided by the Hanover Street Bridge.
Not until we got back home and turned on the news did we realize that all that debris and mud we saw was remnants of last night’s storm, washing away Ellicott City.

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Hanover Street Bridge from Broening Park

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No way am I putting my kayak in there.

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The garbage and debris didn’t stop these guys

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Under the Hanover St bridge.

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After a short stroll, we headed to the Southwest Boat Launch. This is Baltimore County’s property on the Patapsco River.

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The river rose and covered the trail bridge with mud…

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Hard to see in this photo but the water where the SW branch and the Patapsco meet is moving way too fast. We are quiet, peaceful-waters kayakers. Too much work here, dodging all the debris out there. Like I said, at this time we were unaware of the damage done upstream of here.

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Along the path between the SW Boat Ramp and the Model Airplane Club we came across this marker, which someone removed the plaque from. I wrote to Baltimore County Rec and Parks and asked what was there – no response.