Shingle Creek and Northwest River Paddle 7/23/13

We only had 5 people for this paddle but the five had a good time on the flat waters of Shingle Creek and North/ West River. You could not asked for better weather than we had on this Tuesday Paddle. We all arrive right at 9:00 A.M. and put our 4 yellow and one blue kayaks into the water and headed out towards the river on Shingle Creek. The water this time was at least 5 feet higher than last years paddle. The north winds had not blown as hard as last years trip pushing the water out of Currituck Inlet and the North/West River. We started seeing birds in just a few minutes into our paddle Great Blue Herons, Egrets and another bird we said must have been a Immature Bald Eagle. We reached the river in about 25 minutes and although the water on the river was flat we turned left into a small creek that on our last trip we could not paddle because of the low water. With John F, Ken, Dottie, Margaret and Bruce we paddle into this beautiful creek with flowers and tall green trees and it was so still with very little wind we paddle on. This was not a short cut but a U shape creek that took us about 1 mile up the North/West River towards North West River City Park. Reaching the park we found out that they had removed the boat dock, guess the lack of money it was cheaper to take it down than rebuild it. This is so sad but it is happening in all of our city, state and nationally parks. With no boat dock we found a small beach where we could pull our kayaks out of the water so to take a bathroom break and eat our lunch there next to the river in the shade on their picnic tables, at least the table were still there.

After about 40 minutes we put our boats back into the water and with a west wind started back to the put-in. There was another creek that I had wanted to paddle that showed on the map it too went in a U shape and would take us back down the river about one mile. Well after John F. had told me that his GPS show this creek did NOT go all the way through, we started in anyway. Guess what, after about a half mile it ended. It was a nice paddle into the creek and it gave us another mile of beautiful surrounding.

Back on the river we headed south until we reached Shingle Creek and turning into this flat water creek we paddle slowly because our trip was almost over and it was so nice being out on such a nice day, we didn’t want it to end. Back at the put-in we loaded our boats and said our good-by’s and headed towards our home. But wait, Tuesday Grouper’s eat ice cream, so with two of our group gone we other 3 stopped at Southland and had ice cream and milkshakes.

We were on the water about 5.5 hours and paddle about 10.5 miles, another great day with the Tuesday group.

Bruce