My Very Good Day

There is lots of water on the outer banks, but most of it seems to be in the Atlantic ocean, or the sounds.  Since I prefer creeks and bayous, there doesn't seem to be a lot of paddling nearby. But today my paddling buddy, John, decided we would have a day with no rain, winds less than twelve mph, and mild temperatures - it got to 48° - so invited me to drive about eighteen miles north to meet him and then go a few more miles to the put-in.  Rick, another club paddler, joined us.

When I started writing this blog, I didn't know the name of the creek.  It doesn't even show on lots of maps.  But it used to be deep enough for sailboats to use it, and some of them are still trapped in there. After I asked John the name, and he didn't know he asked some people who have a boat there.  Apparently it is called Jean Guite Creek. All I could find out about it was that it was built to haul barges of logs.

Getting Ready

I took a lot of pictures of this dog retrieving while waiting on the guys

Rick and John

I was surprised to see this building - John pointed out trapped boats - from when this creek was deep enough for big boats. 

Then we arrived at a covered bridge

I found this little ecosystem very beautiful

It was hard to tell the Canada geese from their reflections

The guys approaching a covered bridge that goes nowhere - led to a failed housing development

Then we came to a developed area

Another enjoyable view

We spooked this great blue heron

Rick

We found a bridge being built over one of the neighborhood canals

Loved this allegator - also in the neighborhood where
we wandered lost for several minutes

Room for a garden and you can paddle from either side of this house - Check it out, Natalie

The sky over the Atlantic Ocean was beautiful 

Starting back from visiting a friend of the guys

I wouldn't want to paddle here in the summer

Coming under the covered bridge

Almost back

Caught a tiny sunset when I was almost home

Happy Valentine's Day to all of you. Hope you have happy plans for it.  I'm about to leave to go visit a very dear friend in South Carolina for my late Valentine's Day gift to myself.

Paddle on Tull Creek

December 12, 2015

My new friend and fellow volunteer, John, invited me to join members of his paddling club, The Outer Banks Paddlers, on a paddle on Tull Creek. We put in on a canal that took us quickly down to the creek. The channel was through trees, as was the first part of the creek.  But the last part was mostly through marsh.  It was wider than most of the streams I paddle.

 Parts of it was very remote feeling, but we also passed some houses.  When we reached Tull Bay, we turned up another channel for a few hundred yards and took out at a marina for a lunch break.  I got to meet five new paddlers and enjoy a really beautiful day with them. The round trip was just over eight miles because we both detoured to the marina and took a little side trip up a narrow side creek.

Getting ready

In you go

And we're off

Trees and tall grasses made up the views along the creek

We met several fishermen

The gang

It was a wide stream, but fortunately, we didn't have wind

This is the first time I can remember seeing a cypress tree up rooted, complete with its knees. 

Lunch Break

In the narrow creek

Sunset on the way home after a delicious seafood platter for late lunch/early supper

Paddle on Mill Tail Creek

November 25, 2015

Tuesday, I went in early to work on a project and was hanging out at the desk when the phone rang. I answered it and the man identified himself as John Thomas, a volunteer I'd just met. In fact he was supposed to train me on the procedures of the Visitor Center, but we had mostly talked paddling and he showed me his kayak, paddles and lots of maps showing places to paddle.

So I said "Hi John, this is Marilyn, and he said he was calling to find me to see if I wanted to paddle with him that afternoon.  I replied, "Yes, I want to paddle, but I have to work today but can paddle tomorrow." He responded, "I have to work tomorrow morning until 12:30. Do you want to start when I get off." Of course, I never say no to a paddle, so agreed to meet him at the Visitor Center in Manteo, at noon.

So Wednesday, just after 12:30,  I was following him out of the Visitor Center, across the Croatan Sound, to Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. We went past the Maintenance Building and down to Milltail Road to where it crosses Mill Tail Creek.  We were unloading our kayaks and getting ready to leave by about 1:30 P.M. This is a quiet, mostly wide creek through a swamp.  I saw no places to take out, in about 2.5 miles.  We had to turn around in order to get home before dark.  We managed to get back right at sunset and I made it all the way home before the last bit of pink faded from the darkening sky.

We saw no wildlife, except for a few birds.  I heard or saw chickadees, turkey vultures, red bellied woodpeckers, a pileated woodpecker and lots of wood ducks - all either in eclipse, females or young. The quiet was wonderful, except for the noise of a few planes, and one sound of an ATV when we were almost back to the put-in.

John getting ready

And getting ready to paddle off the dock

The waterway - a creek through a swamp

Dark, tannic reflections

Me by John

John

The light just before sunset

Almost back

Last Friday, John called me again to go on another paddle.  This time we went north to Carova Beach Park and Boat Ramp, in the town of Carova, on the Outer Banks, almost to Virginia.  We paddled down a canal and the through a natural waterway, still lined on one side with expensive houses. In the front lawn of one house, we saw three wild horses. We paddled across a bit of open water and then found some channels into a march where there were lots of duck blinds. We also paddled past some of the Currituck National Wildlife Refuge.  Unfortunately, I had to change my canoe and other stuff into John's truck as we had to have 4-wheel drive to drive across the beach and I forgot both  my life jacket and my camera in my car and didn't notice for about 20 miles. .  He had an extra life jacket, but no camera.  The only birds we saw was a great blue heron, a great egret, and a flock of swans which flew over us.

My apologies to the people who saw this unfinished. I'm not sure how I managed to publish it before I was finished editing it. 

First Paddle in North Carolina; First New Friend

November 15, 2015

I was so excited about this experience,  I couldn't cull my pictures enough.  Get your coffee first. 

Besides getting to reconnect with many of my old friends, I got to turn a virtual friend into a real friend. I have been running into him in cyberspace for several years, since we both write blogs and both post our pictures on Flickr. He blogs about gardening and paddling and some of the stories of his paddles make me drool. I think he commented that we would have to meet while I was living close to him and I commented that I would love to do the paddle he blogged about.  He claims his job is Tree Hugging, Dirt Worshipping, and Second Guessing, so I knew he would be a kindred spirit. And he really works at the Norfolk Botanical Garden.

We agreed to meet at Merchants Millpond State Park, just south of the Virginia state line in northeast North Carolina.  I reserved a campsite for two days and drove up there from my stop to visit Laurel in South Carolina, getting there in time to enjoy the beautiful visitor center, and have some hammock time.

My camp

The next morning I got up and went to get a cup of coffee, then came back to start photographing.  I found I couldn't get into the parking lot, from where I had planned to do a little hiking, but there was lots of beauty to be found along the road. A few minutes later, a truck slowed down and the driver asked, Marilyn? I responded, Les?  Within a few minutes, he had parked his truck, grabbed his camera, and we were catching up, like old friends, while enjoying the marvelous light.

I came back from getting coffee down this road and saw this wonderful light..  The lake is visible across the road.

Sun's up

This road view made me anxious to get on the water

I couldn't stop photographing this scene

The dam

Just another dam picture

My favorite dam picture- it's almost an abstract

Putting In

Les looking almost as good as his reflection

This was the only heron we saw

Red maples added fall color

We saw very few birds. But there were some wood ducks screeching and lots of Canada geese calling.  They were all at the very back, where we couldn't paddle for the mix of duckweed, leaves, and parrot feather.

A mockingbird guarding his berries

I loved the Christmas look of the silvery Spanish moss and the red maple leaves

One of the canoe camps

Another doubly beautiful view

I loved the light coming through the Spanish moss

This tree looked like it had  had a hard life

Shelf fungi

I could look at the reflections on this dark tannic water forever

This scene was even more beautiful until a rogue breeze messed up the reflection

This man came in and out with us

We visited with him as we came off the pond and admired his spotted perch.
He cleans them and gives them to his old neighbors. 

Just another day in (a new) paradise.  Thanks Les for the wonderful trip.  And the first day at work, the volunteer who was SUPPOSED to train me was an avid paddler,  and taught me a lot more about where to go paddling then about how to run the Visitor Center.  Fortunately, the National Wildlife Refuges Visitor Center is only three years old and had the latest software to run the cash register.  So it's pretty blonde friendly.

I told him about this paddle and he said I might have been able to cross the street and put on on Bennett's Creek but recently there hasn't been enough water. Click here to find a description of the first leg of that stream.  And the park has built a big, interpretative visitor's center about a quarter of a mile north.  That is now the place you rent canoes. But you would still put in across from the little dam.  This area is probably the northernmost place to find the American alligator.  We did not see the resident gator on our paddle.