A tale of two boating trips

On Saturday, it was a beautiful day here - 75 degrees and sunny with little wind - a perfect day for our first kayaking trip of the season. It was my first time out in my new boat - a red Loon Classic 100 from LL Bean (my only other attempt to use it last August was disastrous; it was way too windy and wavy), but Saturday's trip was pretty good.


We went to the southern part of Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Dorchester County, Md., south of Cambridge, and did about a 3-mile round-trip on the Blackwater River. The tide was going out when we got there, and was a little swift. By the time we were well into the marshy areas, the water depth was very low in some spots (and it was very muddy). We kept trying offshoots to hook up with the main river, but each ended up being impassable, so we had to end up retracing the same path back.

Here's a short video from the swampy area:

At Blackwater, bald eagles are everywhere; we saw a few on the drive in, but not while kayaking. I saw at least one water snake (the trail marker sign tells you that you will not come across any VENOMOUS snakes; how reassuring) and fish, turtles and herons.


Mike loved this spot; I kind of prefer the river that I wrote about in a previous post, but we also have plenty of more locations to check out. Next up are a few in Delaware.

Row, row, rowing a boat in NYC

In late March, we went on an overnight visit to New York City to see a play and catch the sights. Friday, March 27, turned out to be a wonderful spring day, nearly 65 degrees and sunny. We spent most of the afternoon in Central Park, entering near 72nd Street and Central Park West where John Lennon's Strawberry Fields are.

We were headed for the picturesque Bow Bridge, which has been in numerous movies. As we walked along The Lake, we saw a lot of people out in rowboats - and Mike decided, let's go do that! We went to the Boathouse and learned it was only $12 an hour to rent a boat, and off we went.

I never expected to be out in a lake in the middle of New York City in a rowboat, but I'm glad we stumbled upon it. It was so relaxing and fun, and it's so pretty in the park and neat to see all the tall buildings in the distance.

Here's a short video clip from the area around the bridge:

Such concentration!

The turtles were also out sunning themselves!

Exploring more of the park is definitely on my list for next time - but remind me to wear shoes that are comfortable, not the ones that I like. I could barely walk by the time we got back to the hotel!

Lazy (afternoon) on the river

Mike loves adventure: the bigger the mountain, the more strenuous the trail, he's there.

Me, not to such a great degree.

We take a yearly vacation to Maine. While he's on the toughest hikes, I'm usually camped out on the rocks, watching the ocean, reading a good book. I try out some of the harder trails, balk a little, but always end up having a good time.

His newest adventure is kayaking. Where we live, there are waterways ... everywhere. This spring, he bought a kayak and has been testing out several places. Last week, I rented a boat and went out with him on the Transquaking River in lower Dorchester County, Md.

The river was a great place to try kayaking for the first time ... very still, no current, not very wide and surprisingly, no bugs. Also, it had houses along the shoreline ... in case of an emergency =). The water was brown, and at the boat ramp it had a lot of murky stuff floating around in it, but I put my feet in it anyway, paddled my way into the river, and off we went.

And it was fun. We paddled and floated for about 4 hours, stopping so he could fish (the fish were jumping, but not biting). We saw egrets, herons and ospreys along the way. I brought a book along here, too, and read here and there while he tried to get a fish to bite, and it was a relaxing and peaceful afternoon.

Now, I'm going to buy a kayak of my own. I went to an LL Bean store 65 miles away today, only to find out they sold the one I wanted earlier this morning! I'm planning to try another store this weekend. On Sunday, we scoped out new places to put in along the Nanticoke River in the southern part of our county ... and we found some beaches there, too. After 11 years here, who knew?

So, our next adventure may await later this week ...