Best Kayaking Photos of 2020

If I were going to name a single activity that we would never have guessed would be impacted by Covid this year, it would be kayaking. It's probably the most socially distanced thing we do. On hiking trails and greenways, you're passing people sometimes only a few feet away, but out on a river you're seldom close enough to anyone to even shout "Hi!" But, for some reason one of the things that many states and localities shut down were boat ramps, and sometimes entire lakes, all through spring and summer, the prime kayaking window. The ramps and waters that did remain open could be insanely crowded. We'd go to spots we'd launched from in the past and find cars parked along the road in both directions for a quarter mile. The result was less time on the water, and more repeat trips to the same few spots we were confident we could launch from. So, this year's kayak photo edition is a bit light, and is actually punched up with a lot of aquatic wildlife photos that we actually encountered biking. That said, we still got some great photos, and even better memories on the water this year. 

Cheryl heads into an oxbow on the Waccamaw.

A gator on the Waccamaw! It's pretty rare for a swimming gator to stay at the surface if a kayak is anywhere in photographing distance. 

More Waccamaw. This is a shallow channel around an island that motorboats avoid. Very peaceful. 

This is from Fripp, where didn't actually kayak this year, though we have kayaked there before, so it counts!

Waterlily on the Waccamaw. This is a pleasant photo, but it was actually taken in a busy section of the river where racing motorboats turned crossing the river into a game of Frogger.  

Launching from the Oyster Shell beach at Murrell's Inlet. 

A kingfisher on Falls Lake. 

A tiny, tiny turtle on Jordan Lake. 

A water snake on the hunt on the Waccamaw.

My sister Joy made us these gator masks. We launched for a trip to Bull Island, but had to turn back because of high winds and an oncoming storm. 

Boat ramps were so crowded during the day that we eventually decided to try launching onto Jordan Lake at night. It was still crowded!

A wood stork takes to the sky at Murrell's Inlet. 

More wood storks. This is also a photo from biking, but we've paddled over the spot their feeding in on other trips. 

We first spotted spoonbills a few years ago at Murrell's Inlet, but hadn't seen them since. This year we saw maybe a dozen. What amazing colors! 

Another biking photo, this one on the Spanish Moss Trail. But, it was next to some very kayak friendly looking waters around Beaufort, so hopefully we'll get back there for a water expedition some day. 

This was again taken from a bike, on Pinckney Island. He looks very happy in his element. 

Another one taken from a bike, at Huntington Beach State Park. Its' funny, but when we kayak there, we never spot gators. I guess they hear us coming in the water and dive before we ever get near. 

Once more, the Waccamaw. 

A starfish on Pawley's Island. 

 

Best Hiking Photos of 2020

Cheryl and I love hiking, and love exploration even more. While we do spend time on popular, heavily trafficked trails, we also love veering off off trail when we spot a trace of old road that might lead to an abandoned homesite. Biking can take us swiftly to destinations that have amazing scenery, but when we hike we tend to notice that any given patch of ground we're standing on is full of wonderful things. Hiking rewards taking things slow and noticing the small wonders that line the path to the big, photogenic vistas. 

A dragonfly on the path to Old Quarry Road in Duke Forest.

We hiked the Appalachian Trail! Part of it, at least. 

Travel tip: You don't actually need a ticket to hike at Occaneechee Speedway.  

The Mountain to Sea Trail is a great place to hunt for abandoned structures. 

Brumley Forest as we realize we'll never get back to the car before it gets dark. 

I think this is from Eno State Park. Maybe? We photograph a lot of butterflies. 

And we snap a lot of bee pics. I think this is from the Confluence.

Definitely from a Confluence trail. 

Paw paw flowers at the Confluence. Apparently these are really common in NC, but somehow we'd managed never to see them before this hike. 

A seldom trafficked trail through Duke Forest's Hillsborough division. 

Anole on the Uwharrie Trail.

Also on the Uwharrie. 

An even more obscure Duke Forest Trail in Alamance County. 

A Hen of the Woods in Duke Forest. I spotted this hiking with Calvin Powers, then hiked three miles back to it the next day to show it to Cheryl. Any mushroom big enough to be a destination is a pretty good mushroom. 

I honestly have no idea where we took this!

For security reasons, I can't reveal the location of this berry patch. 

Sunflower on the Hillsborough River Walk.

Another flower that could be anywhere.

Duke Forest, Hillsborough Division.

Guilford Farms, also part of the Mountain to Sea Trail. 

I went way off trail looking for a possible old homesite I'd spotted on Google Earth. I found it. This tree once shaded it. When you spot huge trees standing solo among plainly younger trees, it's a hint it might once have been a shade tree near a house or in a field.  

McCafee Knob. Cheryl's not posing dramatically just to be photographed. She's bracing against a ferocious wind. 

I think this is a Duke Forest thistle, but it might be an Eno River thistle. It was a big year for thistles. 

Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve.

Pilot Mountain.

A place you aren't supposed to hike to in Brumley. 

A place you probably shouldn't hike to near Duke Forest. 

This is probably from Duke Forest. 

From a hiking trail in Little River park. What's funny about this photo is that ten minutes earlier I actually said, "I guess it's too cold for mushrooms now." Then Cheryl went on to spot, like, 100 mushrooms, and took what has to be her best mushroom photo of the year. 

 

Best Biking Photos 2020

 Our adventures took us far this year, with biking trips in Louisiana, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, and our home state of North Carolina. Below are some of the best pictures we took on these trips, 35 images winnowed down from close to 2000 photos we took this year. I moved some biking pictures of aquatic critters like gators and spoonbills to the upcoming best of kayaking post since they seemed to fit that theme better. (There will also be a best of hiking post.) According to our tracking software, Cheryl and I spent 577 hours biking, hiking, or kayaking this year. There's a grand universe out there, and we look forward to exploring even more of it! 

Watch where you're peddling on the Greenbrier Rail Trail!

The All American Trail is a dry, sandy trail except where it isn't. 

This baby racoon did its best to be invisible on the New River Trail. 

Watch the tide charts if you plan to bike on Pinckney Island. 

Tide charts are kind of important on Fripp Island as well!

We love a good vanishing point on a rail trail, and the Tammany Trace doesn't disappoint. 

Trails rumble through the sky on Lynchburg greenways. 

Wear a mask! 

Pastoral peace on the New River Trail. 

To date, the Tammany Trace is the only rail trail we've ridden with its own drawbridge. 

A busy bee on the High Bridge Trail. 

A snake wishing it were somewhere else on the High Bridge Trail. 

Also the High Bridge Trail, a little flower next to a trail head. 

Cheryl takes her maiden ride through a new tunnel on the White Oak Greenway. 

Technically, we didn't bike in Clifton Forge, Va, but it's obvious that someone there likes bikes. 

The Greenbrier Trail is a great place to ride through railroad history. 

The moon rising in Marlington, WV, over the Greenbrier Trail. 

I think we found this turtle on a late night ride on the American Tobacco Trail.

A post-rain ride on the White Oak Greenway. 

Shadows on the American Tobacco Trail. 

A monster fungus on the America Tobacco Trail. It was the size of a small pizza. 

Bridge over the New River. 

A good place for lunch off the Virginia Creeper Trail in Damascus. 

Pitcher plants put on quite a show in Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve. Bring bug spray! 

Also, Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve has a very loose interpretation of the word "road." 

Fall color on the American Tobacco Trail.

Aww, love, at Huntington Beach State Park. 

Partial submersion is a very common trail condition for the Danville Riverwalk. 

Butterflies congregating next to the Greenbrier Trail. 

You won't get confused about which direction you're headed when you bike the Neuse River Trail.

A bee looks like a spaceship returning to its station in Anderson Point Park on the Neuse River Trail. 

Racing my own shadow on the American Tobacco Trail. 

Pitcher plants have some colorful competition at Lewis Ocean Bay. 

A festive tree on the American Tobacco Trail.

Light through a leaf at Pinckney Island. I think? Maybe Hunting Beach? Or Beaufort? South Carolina, definitely.