Note: This is the first of two trips up the Chesapeake Bay. The second trip, captured at http://kwoodham.sdf.org/ep2, occured two years after this one and covered the Eastern shore of the bay to Havre de Grace, Maryland and then back down to Baltimore, to the same end point of this trip.
I’ve wanted to try to paddle the Chesapeake Bay since moving to Virginia Beach in 2006. It was a cockamamie idea at the time (still is), but it’s an itch that has refused to go unscratched. So on July 4 I am hoping to start my “epic paddle” from First Landing State Park in Virginia Beach to North Point State Park in Baltimore.
I have 11 legs planned ranging from about 13 to 24 miles, with three days for rest or weather (interlude: best laid plans… it’ll be a hoot to see how this really plays out). This means finishing off the last leg to Baltimore on Wednesday 7/17, and which point I will have considered the trip a grand success. But if there is enough gas in the tank and time on the clock I’d like to extend it by one day and take a shot at the whole enchilada: the 35 miles up to Havre de Grace (pronunciation) at mouth of the Susquehanna River (steering waaaaay clear of Aberdeen Proving Ground along the way).
Ruth will be driving “support” and will attempt to navigate reasonably close to our pre-arranged pickup point each day. She will be the first to tell you that her navigating skills sans Siri are wanting, and a lot of these places don’t have street addresses. (Siri: “I found 1592 matches for ‘some beach on the Chesapeake Bay,’ would you like me to show them to you?”) I will pack extra food and patience. In any case, I’d like to be off of the water early afternoon before it gets too hot and/or stormy: I don’t mind paddling in the rain (it’s just more water) but I’m really allergic to lightning. When she is not schlepping her husband and his boat around, Ruth will be looking for “treasure” in every local antique store from Mathews VA to Mayo MD–hopefully leaving enough room on the ride home for her husband in her Toyota Highlander and his boat on top.
I started getting the outrigger canoe bug in 2009. Gracious members of the Hampton Roads based “Mid-Atlantic Paddlers Association” let me try out a couple OC1 (“outrigger canoe 1-seat”) rides, and after managing to stay on for more than a few strokes, I was hooked. About the same time I started reading about Margo Pellegrino’s trips along the North America coastlines, and was further convinced by what she wrote about how well-suited the OC1 was for open-water solo paddling. My first OC1 purchase was a used Kai Wa’a Pegasus (disclaimer if you visit that page: mine was not pink), which I paddled until 2012. At that point I purchased the new “big brother” of the Pegasus–a Kai Wa’a Scorpius XM–from Jean Raas in Clearwater-Tampa Bay, FL.
This has been a great boat for the bay and the protected waters in and around Virginia Beach; particularly in the evening after work, where I can enjoy the last hour or two of daylight and a beautiful sunset as an encore.
(This is where I wax philosophic. You don’t have to read it if you don’t want to. Your call.)
Wax on…
Why paddle the Chesapeake? I dunno… I could say “because it’s there.” But I think that phrase (attributed to George Mallory) is reserved for justifying mountain climbs, and other than tidal effects there’s not much vertical action here. The best I’ve come up with is this: if I were to hang a right out of First Landing instead, the next land I’d hit would be Morocco, and that’s just too darn far. So paddling the Chesapeake seems pretty logical to me.
Seriously, though, I think that God wired us for adventure. (Personally, I see this in Jesus’ words in Jn 10:10 “life to the full”.) However, our culture has effectively substituted vicarious experiences for our own authentic versions. Why leave the comfort of the couch when television can stream to us all sorts of amazing exploits of professional, bona fide adventurers from across the globe? It’s much safer! (Although there is the danger of RSI when using the remote: remember to warm-up, pace yourself, use good thumb technique, and always cool down). Sure, others may go farther, faster, and face greater obstacles (see Inspiration, below), and it’s entertaining and all… But enough! I want my own adventure, Dagnabit! (I’m a Christian–that’s as close as I’ll get to cussing.)
Speaking of being a Christian, how does that fit in (besides not cussing)? Couple of thoughts come to mind. First is that the Bible does talk about physical exertion and athletic pursuits as metaphors for spiritual life (examples: 2 Tim 2:1–7, 2 Tim 4:6–8, Heb 12:1–3). Character attributes like endurance, discipline and being goal-oriented are necessary for successful athletes–and good Christians.
Lest we take this too far… These passages treat such exploits “as metaphors for life” and not “as life.” To the degree that something like paddling a 21-foot chunk of carbon-fiber (though a very beautiful and hydrodynamically efficient chunk of carbon-fiber) up the Chesapeake helps me in life, well then I’m all for it. But when the adventure becomes the reason for living–that’s taking things too far. I’m thinking of the adventure junkies who habitually go after the experience, but don’t use the experience as a means to help them to grow personally in character–or in the present context: spiritually. If you are familiar with Stephen Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, this is the impetus that I see behind the seventh habit: “Sharpening the Saw.” (By the way, Covey died last year from complications after a bicycle accident on a steep road in the foothills of Provo, Utah. Still out sharpening the saw–at age 79.) In short, to sharpen the saw means to do the things (recreation, learning, reading, etc…) that help you to be more effective. Paul gave the relative benefit this way: “For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” (1 Tim 4:8). Hey, the godly Christian men I admire the most are often involved regularly in some type of athletics or at least exercise regularly–but they have their ducks in a row regarding their ultimate focus.
Then there’s the “into nature” thing. (I went to the University of Colorado at Boulder. Minoring in “Into Nature” was mandatory.) I’ll admit that I absolutely love being on the water. Early Saturday morning at sunrise or weekdays close to sunset–smell of the water, the sea breeze, the dolphin, the dorky pelicans. (I’m probably lucky that I can’t understand what they say about me when I paddle by: “Look at that knucklehead! You call that a beak? Loser!”) Nature is beautiful (even the pelicans, I suppose), impressive, powerful… and I’m really looking forward to two weeks on the water. But as impressive as nature is, God encoded it with something more impressive: clues about his nature. Romans 1:20 says that those clues aren’t hard to decode–it even goes as far as saying that it’s man’s fault if we don’t see them. So as a Christian, the discipline that I have to cultivate is to look past the wonders of creation to wonder about the creative force behind them: the “invisible qualities” that Rom 1 talks about. Otherwise, there’s a danger of effectively “worshiping the created rather than the Creator” (vs 25). So, I’m looking forward to exploring that aspect of my relationship with God on this trip: he intends for me to learn about “his eternal power and divine nature” from what he’s created, and I intend to do just that.
So, why do this? Answer: I really want to. It will be a great adventure and I get to share it with the love of my life - at least from the afternoon on (if she can find me). And I think it will be spiritually beneficial as well; my intent is to come back as a more “useful” Christian (see 2 Tim 2:20–21 on that one). But the real heart of the matter, the nagging $0.25 question, is this: would Jesus take two week out of his life to paddle the Chesapeake Bay from Virginia Beach to Baltimore? The answer is probably (sigh) no.
I think he would’ve walked it.
I’m done. Wax off.
Here are some of my paddling heroes. The scale of their “epic paddles” makes my 200-miler look like a yawner of a warm-up:
Wife, mother of two, passionate ocean advocate, Margo Pellegrino is an amazing paddler to boot. She’s given me some very helpful advice and encouragement.
Carpenter by trade, Jake Stachovak circumnavigated the Eastern US (called the “Great Loop”) by kayak in 2009–2010 (5740 miles) “expedition” style: carrying all of his camping gear in his kayak and finding good overnight spots along the way. His trip started/ended in Portage Wisconsin.
In 2003, photographer John Guider dropped his canoe into the creek behind his house in Franklin TN and spent the next three months paddling 1200 miles, writing, and taking pictures - all the way to New Orleans. I have a copy of John’s beautiful photo essay “The River Inside”. I’ve had the chance to have some email exchanges with John, and a good phone conversation with him as he sailed/rowed his home-built custom-designed Chesapeake Light Craft Expedition Skerry through Hampton Roads last summer on his Great Loop voyage. Amazing man.
Freya Hoffmeister - Incredible kayaker, indomitable adventurer, one b-r-a-v-e lady. Among her many exploits:
Born in 1922, Verlen Kruger was a WWII tank driver, a P–51 pilot, and a plumber after his retirement from service. He started canoeing when he was 41 years old and proceeded to log over 100,000 miles—including a 28,000 mile trip over a three year period. There are a couple of Verlen’s Sea Wind canoes around town. He perfected the design during his many journeys in just about every condition imaginable.
Yawner. Like I said.
Here’s the plan for the trip along the Western shore of the bay. I mostly will be within a couple hundred yards of shore, but there are some relatively small (certainly by Freya and Verlen’s standards) open water crossings at Hampton Roads, Mobjack Bay, and the York, Rappahannock and Potomac rivers.
| Leg | Date | Start | End | Dist | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | 7/4/2013 | First Landing | Buckroe Beach | 18 | 18 |
| Day 2 | 7/5/2013 | Buckroe Beach | Seaford | 14 | 32 |
| Day 3 | 7/6/2013 | Seaford | Mathews | 20 | 52 |
| Rest Day 1 | 7/7/2013 | Rest | |||
| Day 4 | 7/8/2013 | Mathews | Windmill Pt | 14 | 66 |
| Day 5 | 7/9/2013 | Windmill Pt | Fleeton | 15 | 81 |
| Day 6 | 7/10/2013 | Fleeton | Point Lookout | 17 | 98 |
| Day 7 | 7/11/2013 | Point Lookout | Pax River NAS | 14 | 112 |
| Day 8 | 7/12/2013 | Pax River NAS | Lusby | 6 | 118 |
| Day 9 | 7/13/2013 | Lusby | Dares Beach | 20 | 138 |
| Rest Day 2 | 7/14/2013 | Rest | |||
| Day 10 | 7/15/2013 | Dares Beach | Beverly Beach | 22 | 160 |
| Day 11 | 7/16/2013 | Beverly Beach | Sandy Point | 13 | 173 |
| Day 12 | 7/17/2013 | Sandy Point | Fort Armistead Baltimore | 17 | 190* |
*Distance: Had some round-off error here and there - did a continuous measure of the trip using Google Maps and came up with 202 miles.
OK - full disclosure. This whole thing is a front for my hidden obsession with finding the best crab cake. Ruth picked up on my scheme after about the 5th or 6th straight order…
Rankings:
While the scenery beyond the immediate vicinity was usually very interesting, the close in view remained relatively constant, and frankly pretty boring. Here’s a description of the view from the bridge:
| Key | Description |
|---|---|
| A | 70 oz CamelBack with Gatorade. AKA pre-processed sweat. Comes in through this tube and goes out my skin. Apparently I derive some minimal nutritional value on the way by. |
| B | Boat leash. AKA funky tan-line generator. |
| C | GPS with a few way-points loaded per day |
| D | Feet. AKA: (a) directional controllers, (b) jellyfish bait, (c) landing gear |
| E | 70 oz CamelBack with H2O. Man cannot live on Gatorade alone. |
| F | Waterproof chart-holder with paper charts from circa 1990 Chartbook I bought for $5. Backup for GPS. AKA “How to back up cutting-edge technology with not-so-cutting-edge technology.” |
| G | Waterproof stuff sack filled with - stuff. |
| H | Das Wasserpaddel (used to propel Das Boot) |
| Not shown | Marine VHF radio - in case things get really hairy |
| Not shown | Spare paddle. Hey, drop your only paddle in a stiff wind and you will not be meeting your support staff at the take-out location that day. |
July 4 - First Landing State Park to Buckroe Beach
Beauty of a day to start this thing off. Only thing that could’ve been better was the tides: predictions for the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel called for 6:30 am high tide and 12:30 low tide. Opted for a 9-ish leave time so that I could reduce the impact of the outgoing tide on my ingoing progress without starting closer to noon and paddling most of the afternoon.
Scattered clouds and a nice South breeze for the first 10 miles. Very little boat traffic as well. I had intended to follow Ocean View and angle towards Fort Wool at the southern end of the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel - known by locals as the HRBT (usually prefaced with adjectives that can’t be repeated here), then head across the Norfolk Harbor entrance to Fort Monroe and up to shore to Buckroe. I had wanted to see the “other sides” of these historic forts - those that can’t be seen from my daily commute over the aforementioned HRBT (no adjectives). But given the slog against the current, and that there was no freighter traffic, and almost no pleasure craft out, I was ready to settle for “exploring” at a later date. I reset my GPS to my Buckroe Beach waypoint, and headed straight across the 6 miles from Ocean View Pier.
Google maps gave 18 miles for the planned route - before I shortened it; GPS said 19 actual at the finish. Not sure that I zigzagged that much, but I’ll admit I drifted off course at times. Will see if the rest of per-day plans have that much discrepancy. I hope not.
Ruth picked me up at Buckroe and we came back to VaBeach. Will be the only night at home: tomorrow will in Yorktown with friends from church, then Ruth will meet back up with me on Saturday for the rest of the trip.
Felt pretty good when I got off the water. It hit me, though, after mowing the grass this afternoon (had to be done). No fireworks for me tonight. (ZZZZzzz…)
Family and friends came to see me off. Here are the guys - left to right: Scott, Bill, me, Steve. I don’t recognize the guy on the far left. I don’t think he came to see me off. At least not from that angle. (Photo cred: Sarah Woodham)
July 5 - Buckroe Beach to York Point
Met up with Constantine Lukashin at Buckroe about 9 am. Was a pleasure to have his company for the first 45–60 minutes. We had a nice push along the beach - sorry that Constantine had to paddle back uphill to Buckroe.
Got to see lots of marine life today: dolphin, rays, osprey. Here, a school of sunfish crossed in front of us.
Once I said goodbye to Constantine, I headed around the corner and across the mouth of the Back River. Here you can see the Gantry at NASA Langley to the left of center.
Next up was Plum Tree Island and Poquoson flats. They named those flats well: I was at least a half a mile from shore in about 18 inches of water.
Then came the Poquoson River. At this point all of the SW push I had enjoyed for the morning was no longer, uhm, enjoyable. Very stead wind coming straight down the river + three miles of fetch = messy chop. Not much I could do about it, so I took the chop at about a 45 angle and crabbed across to York Point. I had prearranged a take-out with Jack and Gina Sheehan through Google maps and address lookup. Really enjoyed meeting them and appreciated their hospitality. Mark Atlow, a friend from church, picked me up and he and his wife, Ann Marie, housed me for the night. Mark’s chicken tacos would’ve been delicious under any circumstances; but after 13 miles with the last two being a battle into a headwind - man were they tasty. Not sure I’m getting invited back for dinner at the Atlows anytime soon.
July 6 - York River, Mobjack Bay, New Point Comfort, Bethel Beach
Got on the water about 8:30, and with the wind now helping again, headed out of the Poquoson River at a good clip. I had thought about just doing a straight downwind to New Point Comfort Lighthouse, but a bit offshore, the waves were coming from (at least) two directions, and it got just a bit too bouncy for my comfort level. So I reverted to my original plan of two legs: north across the York River to the Guinea Marshes, then across the mouth of Mobjack bay. Here’s a shot from the channel marker in the York River: Yorktown out of the picture on the left, the Coleman bridge and Gloucester Point in the background. Somehow I managed to get the water somewhat level in this shot - the chop didn’t make composition very easy.
Here’s the “Big Island” with the Guinea Marshes to the right - much calmer water here. (Whew!)
From here, I had a really nice ride across the Mobjack Bay - started to get sloppy again as I approached New Point Comfort. Waves were coming from a bunch of directions it seemed, and I kept zig-zagging back and forth to try to stay on any that seemed to prevail at the moment. All I could think of was the quote from Wallace and Gromit’s A Close Shave: “Get yourselves organized down there!”
After turning the corner around New Point Comfort the waves and wind headed straight up the Bay - what a fun ride! A couple hard pulls to plant the nose in the wave ahead of me and then just minimal effort to zip along at about 6.5 miles an hour with no effort - until that wave died and the next one came along. Had about 7 miles of this up to Bethel Beach - about even with Port Haywood. Ruth met back up with me there and we made our way to the Digg’s homestead - where Gloria Diggs (our neighbor’s sister) is hosting us for a couple nights.
A little over 22 miles today. Big issue was dealing with the heat. Followed the good advice I got from a number of people: hydrate! Drank two 70-oz Camel Backs; Ruth met me with a 32 oz Gatorade, which went down fast; water with dinner, etc… about 200 oz in all. Tried to keep clothes wet by hopping off my boat every half hour or so and dipping my cap in the water every once in a while. Ate a Clif Bars every hour - all in all, I felt pretty good at the end of the day, and seemed to recover well.
Big appetite come dinner - Gloria recommended Seabreeze on Gwynn’s Island. I wolfed down a bowl of clam chowder followed by the Fishermen’s Platter. Happy man, was I.
July 7 - Mathews VA
Sunrise off the porch - beautiful place! Tomorrow: up past Gwynn’s Island and across the Rappahannock.
Great afternoon spent in Mathews. Lunch at Richardsons - really excellent crab cake sandwich.
July 8 - Bethel Beach - Gwynn’s Island - Rappahannock River
Said our goodbyes to Gloria this morning - back to Bethel Beach at 8 for the put in. Low tide was around 6 am, but with a 14 mile day planned and the Rappahannock crossing being the last 4, I decided to hit the crossing closer to high tide rather than fight a strong current. So the tide gave me a nice push up to Gwynn’s Island and then died down for the crossing to Windmill Point.
Really cloudy skies when I started, but nothing threatening. Started a light rain around Gwynn’s Island and became a little heavier crossing the bay between the island and Stingray Pt. Thought about cutting it short there, as the rain was cutting visibility across the Rappahannock, but I could see that there was a lighter sky following the rain clouds. Shortly after crossing in front of the point, the rain stopped and visibility across the river cleared.
Crossing was a little rough, but no trouble. Tried to angle into the chop for a while, then surf it at an angle - kind of a zig-zag crossing. Here’s a shot up the river. The Rappahannock Bridge (US 3) is in the distance in the center of the shot. (Might have to squint a little bit - but it’s there.)
Came into Windmill Point Marina right when Ruth drove up. Got some good advice from the marina for lunch and ended up at Willaby’s at the North end of the Rapp River Bridge in White Stone. Good Eats!
Spending the next two nights at Kilmarnock Inn. Really roughing it.
July 9 Windmill Pt to Smith Pt
Had a long (for me) leg planned from Windmill Point to Smith Point (on South end of the Potomac). On the water about 9:30 am. Would’ve liked to start a bit earlier, but that would have meant blowing off the second B in B&B - and I didn’t want to pull that stunt on Ruth. (Unfortunately, I had to pull that stunt on Ruth the next day - see Day 6.)
Had originally planned on cutting short at Fleeton (small tip of land just below Reedville). This left 6 miles more to get to Smith Pt prior to the Potomac crossing on the next day, so I decided to press on a bit to make the crossing day mileage shorter. Six more miles today meant 6 less for the crossing - turned out that this was a good move.
Got around the corner at Windmill Point and things smoothed out. Trip up to Smith Point essentially goes across two bays: Fleet’s and Ingram. With a push from an incoming tide and the southwest wind, I kept a pretty quick pace across the face of both. Had a couple swell that were really fun: clocked at 8.6 mph on my GPS on one.
Note to self - look into this lodging the next time up this way:
I didn’t have much time to set up a take-out once I decided to push past Fleeton, but found Smith Point Marina on the map and gave them a call. They were happy to let me use the boat ramp (which I’ve done at a number of other facilities - just flip my boat onto my shoulder and walk it up), but they were adamant about a $5 ramp fee.
Smith Point - Just over the VA/MD line, and the south corner of the Potomac River.
Really excited to get across the Potomac tomorrow - physically I’m holding up OK, greatest wear and tear is on my hands. I Don’t think I’ve ever had blisters on top of blisters before! (And this is with paddling gloves on)
Ruth picked me up from the marina, and we headed back to the Kilmarnock. Then came the search for food. Talk about a town that rolls up the sidewalks in the evening! Sheez! Finally stopped a local who directed us to a place in White Stone that was open.
July 10 - Crossing the Potomac - Halfway there!
In the back of my mind this day had been the big intimidator: Smith Point to Point Lookout is over 11 miles and the distance from Point lookout to the closest point on the VA bank is over 6 miles. Either way, that’s a lot of open water.
It didn’t help that all the weather sources had T-Storms moving in around noon. Ruth and I talked it over and she graciously agreed to skip breakfast at the B&B in the morning so that I could get on the water early. Frankly I was pretty nervous about the whole thing when I went to bed. Nerves were not soothed at all when I got up and found that there was a small craft advisory on the lower Potomac. Great. (Didn’t let Ruth know about that one.)
Loaded up and headed back for Smith Point Marina. In the back of my mind I was planning on negotiating a price for an escort boat that could idle along beside me. At the marina I met Dan Hickey. Dan pulled up the weather map and we could see what was making its way across from Ohio - had time to get across before it came into the area. We also found that the small craft advisory had been modified to expire at 10 AM. With low tide on the Potomac occurring about 11 am, things were really starting to come together.
I decided to head up the VA bank for about 6 miles or so until low tide, and then head straight across. After I paid another $5 to the marina to walk my boat down the ramp (not much of an attitude today about it after all the help Dan gave me) I set off from the ramp - only to find that I had left my PFD in the car. I didn’t have cell coverage, so Dan came through once again and was able to call Ruth to turn around.
Next time I got away clean - head out of the channel and left around the point. Beautiful morning. While preparing for the trip, I had read CFR 334.230 regarding lower Potomac restrictions during testing conducted by the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, VA. There were no patrol boats out, which indicated that no testing would be going on. A couple miles in, though, I heard two really loud percussive booms. Call into Dan once again… found out that this was a plane from Pax River Naval Air Station (NAS) breaking through Mach 1 (AKA sonic boom). OK - I guess that I could proceed without fear of being shelled.
Headed up the VA bank until about 10 o’clock then headed at an angle into the waves generated by the SW wind. Plan was to angle into these until I could line up to surf them into Point Lookout. Gave up on this about half-way across, and just decided to try to head straight for the point, surfing what I could at an angle
After the big build-up of “the Big Crossing,” the trip across was actually pretty uneventful. A little bumpy here and there, but otherwise uneventful. Felt a big relief, though when I passed Point Lookout - The last of the “big” open water crossings, and the half-way point as well. Continued up for about 3 miles to an small beach next to a home I had looked up the address for. I was a bit preoccupied in the morning and had just ball-parked the waypoint for this address into my GPS. Turns out that I blew right past Ruth (yelling and waving her arms on the shore) - she had to call me on my cell: “Where are you going!!” - I will be more careful with my waypoints from now on.
An hour after I got off the water, we were at Courtney’s Seafood Restaurant watching a fierce thunderstorm roll across the Potomac. Really glad to be watching it from the sidelines while munching on a crab cake sandwich.
July 11 - Point Lookout to Pax River NAS
One reason that I wanted to get the Potomac crossing out of the way yesterday was that all of the forecasts for the rest of this week were bleak. So getting up this morning, I expected that this would be - as planned - a rest day. I didn’t really need a rest day (I felt fine), but the pretty colors on the radar screen suggested that it might be a good idea.
However, this all looked like it was blowing through about 11:30 or so, and the rain had stopped. So Ruth and I packed up and headed back for the put in. Was able to get in about 15 miles up to the South end of the Patuxent River NAS. Although a couple really dark clouds blew by to the South, I didn’t have a drop of rain the entire trip. Had some great assistance along the way from Dean Westcoat in Dameron: he had me come in to check the weather once again and gave me excellent advice on a take-out below Pax River NAS. Beautiful day on the water - set me up for about a 20 mile day tomorrow (weather permitting) and an easy 7 on Saturday to our hosts for Saturday night - Mark and Mary Klein.
Only down point for today was getting my left ankle tangled up in a jellyfish. I had been pretty careful about avoiding them but had a momentary lapse in vigilance during a rest break with my feet dangling over the side. To those that undoubtedly will tell me that the tried-n-true treatment is to pee on the sting, let me just say this: No.
July 12: 7 AM - Rainout?
Another ugly looking picture:
Yesterday worked out really well, but I only took it on because I had the option to bail out at any time if the weather turned nasty. I don’t have that option for today - there are three “no-no’s” for landing on today’s route: Pax River NAS, the Dominion Cove Point LNG transmission station, and the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant. At least there is no option for landing at these locations without staring down the barrel of an M–16 (or two).
So at least for now - time to drink more coffee and see how quickly the yellow slides from about 20 miles or so West of Richmond towards the right side of the radar picture. If things look OK a bit later today, I might at least try to get around Pax River NAS and find a take out below Cove Point.
11 PM Update - Pax River to Lusby - “Man vs Wind”
Watched the radar picture most of the morning, and it looked like all of the big stuff was out of the way until later in the afternoon. So I located a few addresses up the shore from Solomons for potential take-out spots, and gave them to Ruth after entering them in my GPS as waypoints. Main objective was to get around Pax River NAS and across the river to the Lusby/Solomons side; anything more was just a head start on tomorrow’s leg up to St Leonard and then to Dares Beach.
Got to the put-in at about 1-ish. Water was pretty choppy, and there was a pretty decent North breeze and light rain. It was a little intimidating knowing that - unless it was absolutely necessary - I had to get around the NAS regardless of how bad the conditions got. Once around the front, I could decide to run with the wind and swells into Solomon or press on across the Patuxent River. Brief chat with myself (something along the lines of “Man up, wimp!”) and a customary prayer with Ruth, and I headed out.
Waves got to about 2–3 feet, but since I was angled into the swells, the bow of my outrigger would punch into the waves then lift up over them. Only came close to a huli (flip) once - right when a patrol boat came around the corner. I pride myself on impeccable timing. Fortunately I kept the ama (outrigger) on the left side of the boat and back down on the water.
About a mile into the trip, the wind and rain really kicked up. Had to stash my hat in my PFD to keep it from blowing away and take my sunglasses off (no wipers). Absolutely got drenched. Was really tough to make headway against the wind, but once I turned the corner in front of the NAS I was able to take it at an angle and started working towards the opposite shore of the Pax. Was digging really hard most of the way, and made the 6+ miles in about 2 hours. Found that the sets were well-formed enough that I could paddle for about 10–20 seconds in troughs of the smaller waves, and then turn into the 3–4 big waves that followed: paddle-paddle-paddle, turn, brace-brace-brace, turn, paddle-paddle-paddle… It looked like the opposite shore was in something of a wind-shadow from Little Cove Point (Cove Point itself is up another couple miles) - so it looked reasonable to keep pushing across.
For one of the destination addresses, I did a reverse lookup on a private beach in Lusby and had cleared landing there with homeowners Mary and Jim Mehring. They were great hosts: as soon as I dropped my canoe in their front yard, Mary invited me inside for lemonade in spite of me being dripping wet from head to toe. Had a very nice visit with both of them while waiting for Ruth. The hospitality of complete strangers has been one of the high points of this trip.
Ruth and I headed back to the hotel at Solomons. Talked a bit later with Mark Klein, our host for Saturday and Sunday nights, to work out some logistics. Mark also informed me that the best crab cake in MD was right down the road from us at Stoney’s on the Pier. Had to go. Best crab cake ever. $20 for a crab cake sandwich, and I’d drop 20 again in a heartbeat for another one. Best crab cake ever. (Did I say that already?)
Here’s a shot of the Solomons Bridge from the deck of Stoney’s. Amazing bridge. Beautiful town. We’ll be back. Gotta have another crab cake. Best…
July 13 - Lusby to Dare’s Beach
So nice to have the Pax River behind me, but I paid a bit of a price for it yesterday. Really felt flat when I got on the water about 10:30 with the aim of meeting Mark Klein and two others in St Leonard about 13 miles up by about 1:00. Had trouble getting into a rhythm and I think the day before made my balance a little unsettled–had to catch a couple near-huli’s. Just felt weird on the boat.
Started to get into a bit of a rhythm as I went along, and had a decent South wind push along. Had some swells here and there, but I didn’t seem to have enough energy to keep my momentum going between waves.
Nice day for sight-seeing, though. This the Calvert Cliffs area of the Bay - and although the Calvert Cliffs State Park is just around the corner from Cove Point, the entire run today was pretty much lined with cliffs. As these erode, and drop onto the beaches in front of them, the erosion often releases fossils from the Miocene Epoch, such as shark teeth.
Here’s a shot of the Cove Point Lighthouse, and then Calvert Cliffs State Park. By the way, the lighthouse is available for rent if you are looking for a very unique get away.
After the State Park came the power plant mentioned yesterday, then on to St Leonard, where Mark Klein, Allen Aubert, and Rich Bee, were waiting to escort me on to Dare’s Beach, where Mark and Rich live. Oh, how could I forget Millie the Laberdoodle as well (Allen’s crew):
Millie is quite a character - she got very upset if she and Allen were not the lead boat.
We stopped by a beach just down from Dare’s to stretch a bit. After about 30 seconds of scanning the sand, Mark reached down, picked up a perfectly shaped shark tooth, and handed it to me. I showed it to Rich and asked him how old it would be: “Oh, somewhere between 10 and 12 million years old.”
After about 45 minutes on the beach, we headed back out on the water to the other side of Dare’s Beach - the name is a bit of a misnomer - it used to be a beach jutting out into the bay, but the beach got wiped out in a storm. So the only “beach” left is about a 20 foot wide strip at the north end. Cool community that includes Tom Clancy’s residence a bit North of the main cluster of homes. Dinner with The Kleins and Auberts that evening. Both couples are members of the DC Regional Christian Church, which has a number of ties with the church that Ruth and I attend in Virginia Beach: the Hampton Roads Church. It was a great evening of fellowship. It’s amazing how, as a Christian, we can accumulate so many deeply-valued relationships as part of the Body of Christ. Ruth and I feel that the time in Dares Beach forged friendships with some tremendous people.
July 14 - Dares Beach
Went to church with the Kleins (in their Mini-Cooper: thanks to Mary for letting me sit up front with Mark), then returned home for lunch. I had thoughts about getting a couple hours of paddling in. Swells were coming from the SE, and after being reflected off of sea walls, rip rap and cliffs, they were creating kind of messy water close to shore.
None of this was particularly difficult water to handle, but I just couldn’t get motivated to get going. Really low energy. Ruth happened to do the forehead check on me, and after verifying with a thermometer found that I had a low grade fever in the 100–101 range. So I had an answer for why the previous day was such an effort to slog through and why I felt so flat today.
Mark and Mary’s middle son, Tyson, showed up during lunch, and in the afternoon Mark and Tyson headed for their weekly Ultimate Frisbee game, and Ruth and Mary headed for the beach to look for sea glass (Ruth’s new hobby). So I had some good down-time with Tyson’s new puppy, Suzie. After a busy romp of toy shaking and such, Suzie was ready for some down time as well, so we had a nice quiet rest together on the couch.
July 15 Dares Beach to Beverly Beach Park
Woke up feeling much better - apparently yesterday’s chill with Suzie the WunderPup did the trick. Got out the door early with Ruth–walking down to the beach and away by 7:30. What a beautiful day! The water was very smooth, and between a bit of a current and a push from a mild breeze, I was going right about at 6 MPH very easily. Here’s a shot that shows just how placid the morning was:
On Sunday, I had picked a couple of waypoints in Shady Side about 20 miles up from Dares Beach, but was not able to get an address for Ruth. So the plan was to get there, find an address, and then give Ruth a call. This leg had gone so quickly that when I called Ruth, she had not yet left Dares Beach, and the route to my location was a least 45 minutes for her to drive. So we agreed that she would head up to Mayo and I would press on for a couple miles and find a spot a little further up. By this point I had some small swells pushing from the SE that I could ride straight across the West River, so I thought I could get at least a couple more miles from the push for relatively little effort.
I landed at the North end of Beverly Beach Park (Although at the time I didn’t know it was Beverly Beach Park). I picked the spot because a residence was right behind the beach, and where there’s a residence, there’s an address…
Sure enough: no one home. And not a street sign in sight. Or a street, for that matter.
Actually someone was home: a very old dog woke up from a nap under the porch and decided that he would do the watchdog bit. He shuffles over and offered me a couple “woofs”. Pretty intimidating.
Hoping that there might be an address on his dog-tag, I did my best to make friends with him. I had one more Clif Bar, so I broke off a chunk and held it out to him. We don’t speak the same language, but the look of “Good Lord, what the Sam Hill are you trying to feed me, young feller?” was unmistakable. Apparently knowing the kind of food I eat, he felt sorry for me and I was extended the privilege of scratching him behind the ear. No address on the dog-tag, just rabies ID.
So after calling Ruth and talking her through “look for a big park across from Shady Side and a road on the North end…” she found it on her iPhone map and was on her way. If I had an orienteering merit badge to give her, I would’ve.
Spent the night with DeOnna and Shane Sutton - good friends from when we lived in Bowie, MD. DeOnna’s shrimp and scallops over pasta was incredible.
July 16 - Beverly Beach Park to Sandy Point
After a long day yesterday, I was hoping that the next two would be somewhat “victory lap” legs. Today was envisioned to be a an easy tour of Thomas Point Lighthouse, then up around the corner to the US Naval Academy, then finally around the corner to Sandy Point State Park underneath the US 50 Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Hey, I had weathered the tough legs - in Tour de France terms, this was supposed to be my champagne-sipping, yellow-jersey saunter down the Champs-Elysees, not a mountain stage in the Pyrenees.
Weatherman had me seeing about a 6 MPH West wind. That would’ve been fine, but what I ended up with was about a 15–20 MPH headwind straight out of the north. First slog of the day was to the lee side of Thomas Point Park. From there it looked like the lighthouse was about 3/4 mile off the point - slogging into the wind out and back. Really wanted to get a close in picture, but decided that it wasn’t worth the fight. Instead, after a brief stretch at the park I hopped on again to grind my way around to Annapolis. Got to the lee side of Greenbury Point (three big radio towers) to take a few pictures of downtown Annapolis and the Academy, then headed out across Whitehall Bay to get around Sandy Point to my lovely support crew.
Per our custom - first item of business after getting off the water was food. I knew exactly where I wanted to head: Chick & Ruth’s Deli on Main Street Annapolis. Loved catching breakfast there a few times when we lived in Bowie, MD in 1993–1996. If you are there for breakfast, and your visit spans 8:30 am (weekdays - 9:30 Saturday and Sunday), best drop your fork and swallow that mouthful, as the entire restaurant joins in the Pledge of Allegiance. The place is about 6-feet wide and about 100 yards deep (exaggerating, but not by much) - and if it’s busy (likely), don’t expect to have a very private conversation with your table-mates.
Ruth Levitt passed away in 1986 and Chick in 1995, but the family tradition is now carried on by their son Ted and his wife Beth. Any serious study of genuine community should include a session at Chick and Ruth’s. What a great place–and a legendary Crab Cake sandwich as well.
July 17 - Sandy Point to Fort Armistead Park Baltimore
Plans as discussed in the Introduction included the option for pressing on past Baltimore for about 34 miles up to Havre De Grace. A couple day’s back, I had decided to stand pat on my original goal: the logistics would’ve been a hassle, and I really felt like a great end to this would be a couple down days with Ruth before returning to Virginia Beach. To paddle to Baltimore was my original goal - and I did not feel compelled at all at this point to add to it.
So today is it. A bit of a headwind, but nothing like the previous day. I wanted to try to get a picture of the lighthouse at Sandy Point against the Bay Bridge, and once I did so I turned back North to work my way past Gibson Island. Really a slow pace, until I realized that there was a pretty stiff out-going tide - at which point I worked my way over to towards the shore. The wind-driven chop was reflecting off the shore, so the water was a little bumpy, but not bad. Still had trouble keeping much over 4 MPH, but all in all it was a nice day.
Most of this trip I’ve found that paddling down the center of the crab pot buoys let me keep an eye on the current and ensured that I didn’t need to worry about hitting a shallow spot with my rudder. This usually meant that I was about a quarter to half mile off shore as well. Didn’t take a lot of pictures of the watermen along the way, but this shot is typical of almost a daily encounter.
Got passed up by a fully loaded freighter and watched it make the turn from the Craighill Channel to the Brewerton Channel into Baltimore. Thought to myself: “Driver, follow that boat!” Made the turn around Bodkin Point into the Patapsco River - and there in the distance was the Key Bridge.
My original plans for the day called for ending at North Point, and with very little channel traffic, this would have not been a problem. However, the longer I paddled towards the city the more I felt that, since I was no longer thinking about continuing up the bay as an extension to the trip, I really wanted to end this thing closer to Baltimore. My friend from Morgantown WV days, Greg Karpoff, was planning on coming out to see me finish up. Greg lives in Baltimore, so I gave him a quick call to see if he could think of a place close to the Key Bridge that would serve well as a take-out. (Really appreciated Greg coming out to see us - it was great to connect with him again.) Turns out that Fort Armistead Park was right next to the South end of the bridge, and after a quick call to Ruth, the change was made. I was very glad to be able to come in closer to the city. I had no desire to try for anything near the Inner Harbor, but North Landing seemed so far away from the city that taking out there would’ve been a little less satisfying.
Soaked it all in, and then headed for the left end of the bridge to bring my Epic Paddle to completion.
I am so very grateful for such a fun journey. Also, I am so grateful for a loving wife that has done so much to support me along the way. Ruth Woodham, you have my gratitude and my heart.
One more time with the post-paddle ritual… Mark Klein suggested that G&M in Baltimore had a respectable crab cake. Great advice, but I agree with Mark that Stoney’s still rules.