West Neck Creek Paddle 6/5/12

West Neck Creek Paddle – Bob M.

At 7:30 AM, it looked like a morning shower would cancel the paddle, but in a short while the rain stopped and we met at the West Neck Marina for an exciting paddle (Bill was glad since he was already paddling around waiting for us). As we checked the wind, it became clear that the best route was not toward the North Landing River, as was originally planned, but up West Neck Creek toward the Dozier Bridge at Princess Anne Rd. So the 12 of us (Bob M, Ken, JP, Chris A, Bob S, Bill B, Ed & Jane, Mark, John & Jane, Bob H) started out up the creek (no pun intended). Right off the bat John & Jane forgot their PFDs, so John had to go home to get them. They later caught up with us with amazing speed, just 10 minutes after we started (speed paddlers). It turned out to be a beautiful day, especially for June (not too hot, not too cold, not too sunny). We passed by a couple of ospreys who were squawking at us for getting too close to their nest, saw a few of the familiar birds (blue heron & egrets) and continued on our way. As the creek began to narrow, we started encountering what Bob H calls “alligator weed”, which was blocking our path up the creek. Mark spearheaded the charge through the first section of weeds, but as time went on it got too much even for his ice breaker kayak and we turned around and looked for a place to stop and eat, but no 7-11 or McDonalds around, so we headed back, trying to outrun the rain, which was just starting to come down. We get back to the put-in about hour or so later, paddling 8+ miles, according to Bills GPS. We topped it off by going to Pungo’s Pizza for our typical Tues feeding frenzy. Another great day of paddling on the water and fun time with the Tues group.

View Bill B.'s photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/b.billings/TuesdayJune52012WestNeckCreekRain?authkey=Gv1sRgCLeciN6Z1NyasAE&feat=email