Wormley Creek Paddle, June 18, 2019
Fourteen Tuesday Group kayakers met at Wormley Creek Boat Landing, 9 AM. The weather was great, with some clouds helping keep the temperature down from the forecast 90s. Some of us used the new kayak launch and floating dock while others preferred the boat ramp. We paddled past the Coast Guard Training facility with numerous Coast Guard boats in the water or on floating docks similar to what we see with Sea-Doos, except much larger. No one came out to wave us away. Being high tide, we were able to paddle all the way to the Wormley Creek Dam that we biked over last week on Phyllis’s Yorktown bike ride. There was a stiff SW breeze, but it was blowing off shore and there were no waves. It would have been very hot without the breeze as we discovered between puffs. We paddled back to the mouth of the creek and out into the York River. Several paddlers chose to stop to relax and eat on a sandy area here rather than paddle to Yorktown Beach. A hardy ten paddlers proceeded into the wind and eventually got to the beach. The expected 1 mile paddle turned out to be almost 2 miles miles (sorry!), and we really needed a great lunch break and swim at the beach. Amazingly we did all this in two hours time. Calories from lunch and a rest break gave us the strength to paddle back, but I admit we discussed calling a Uber and pulling out our kayaks at Yorktown! It was actually a pretty easy paddle back to the put-in with the favorable current and wind at our backs. We saw lots of birds, a sting ray, one jelly fish, and someone said they spotted a small shark. The intended 6-7 mile paddle turned out to be 8+ miles, but we made it! See Bill’s photos. After packing up, we headed home and most of us stopped at Sweet Frog in Grafton for frozen yogurt. Several of us hadn’t experienced Sweet Frog before, but quickly learned how to fill up their cup with lots of flavors and lots of toppings! After a bit of very enjoyable conversation, we ended our trip on a happy note.
Jack
We were very lucky to have two great photographers with us on Tuesday.
Here are Jim's pictures he shared with us: https://jimarendphotography.smugmug.com/Sports/n-rdXFW/Kayaking/20190618-Wormley-Creek
Bill B's: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmEoCNvQ
Bob's photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/QfA8nu7DaTE9zP7i8