On the way from Northern Virginia to my sister Kim’s house in Suffolk yesterday, I stopped at the James River near Surrey to throw my kayak in the water for a couple of hours. Oh it was sweet…it had been a couple of weeks since I’d been on the water and I expect that yesterday’s and tomorrow’s paddles will be the last of the season. It is getting a bit chilly and I really need to get the rack off the roof of my car so that I can give the car a serious washing!
Yesterday was very windy and cool, about 50 degrees or so. While had mostly sunny skies on the drive down, once I got in the water and looked around, I saw pockets of dark clouds and rain all around me. Fortunately I only got rained on for about ten minutes. I stayed mostly dry since I had a rain jacket on and was using my splash skirt, due to the choppy water.
I put it at the Carlisle Tract, part of the Hog Island WMA, boat landing on Lawnes Creek and paddled out onto the James River. Upriver a bit is the Surrey Power station which I had not desire to get too close to since who knows what it was putting in the water and what kind of security they had in place. I did head up that way just to see what I could of the shoreline. Then I headed back downriver to do the same. Downriver is a boat graveyard across from Fort Eustice. I had no desire to get too close to that for the same reasons I avoided the power plant.
Having perused a bit of the James, I headed back to Lawnes Creek where I went upstream and took all the offshoots I could find that wound their way through the three to eight foot high reeds. It was nice to get out of the wind and waves. As I prepared to wind up up my paddle, I became increasingly concerned about developing storms. It still looked nice to the southwest but it was very dark and obviously pouring in the northeast on the other side of the James in Newport News.
I paddled furiously back to the boat launch area and got my boat up on the rack. It started to sprinkle as I was changing into warm, dry clothes but I managed to finish up and get into my car just before it started pouring. Timing is everything!
I didn’t see much in the way of wildlife but did see the usual Great Blue herons, Double-breasted cormorants, an Osprey, and, for the first time in the wild this year for me, a pair of Bald eagles. One was flying overhead of me for a while and the light was just right so the contrast of white head and tail against the dark body was very vivid. That sighting made the paddle particularly rewarding!