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.