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. 

 

Biking the Neuse River Trail Greenway

• Date Biked: May 25, 2020
• Posted length: Neuse River Trail:  27.5 miles.  Clayton Riverwalk + Sam's Branch Greenway: 5.25
• Total miles Tracked: 68 miles 
• Type of Trail: paved greenway
• Conveniences: Parking lots
• Best Features: Only two road crossings the whole length. Plenty of access points. 
• Worst Features: Very few bathrooms or water stations near the trail, especially the southern portion. Sometimes crowded. 
• Wildlife spotted: It's common to see deer, rabbits, herons, snakes, turkeys and turtles. 
• Vegetation: Hardwood forests, overgrown briers, wildflowers
• Associated Website: https://raleighnc.gov/places/neuse-river-greenway-trail
• Primary Author: James

The Neuse River Trail is, in our opinion, the best overall greenway you can bike in North Carolina. It's the longest continuous greenway in the state at 27.5 miles, and flows seamlessly onto the Clayton Riverwalk, which connects to the Sam's Branch Greenway, for very close to 33 miles of trail. It was designed like a bike interstate; there are underpasses and overpasses to get you past intersecting roads, so that on the whole length you only have two roads where you might encounter cars. There's a short bit of road that takes you into Anderson Point Park, and you also cross Brownfields Road, where I can't recall ever encountering a single vehicle. If you enjoy riding without once worrying about traffic, this is as good as it gets. 

Taking you above and below existing roads, you can bike for miles without worrying about cars. 

At least, you don't have to worry about cars. Foot traffic and bike traffic are a different issue. The trail is fairly wide for a greenway, but bikes share the path with runners and walkers, and sections of the trail can be downright congested, especially on Saturday mornings. 

But, even on a crowded Saturday, one of the best parts about riding the Neuse is that it's not just bikers that enjoy the absence of traffic. Ride for any distance at all, especially early morning or later in the evening, and it's almost a guarantee you'll see wildlife. Deer are abundant, rabbits are pretty common, and herons are easy to spot during the summer. Wild turkeys tend to show up on the southern sections. There's enough wildlife that, when we took a picture of some wild turkeys in a fields, they got photobombed by a deer. The trail also makes snakes feel at home, so keep your eyes open for copperheads. 

There are so many deer along this trail they sometimes turn up in photos uninvited! 

We ride the Neuse frequently. Given its length, it offers several convenient rides. Out and back the full length is certainly doable during the spring and fall. Things get a bit trickier in the full heat of summer because one area where the Neuse falls short is in water stations. There are bathrooms and fountains at Anderson Point Park, which is located between miles 17 and 18. There's also bathrooms and a fountain at mile 0, at the Falls Lake Dam. And in between... nothing, at least not directly on the trail. There's a few spots where you can detour away and reach a good breaking area in less than a mile between the dam and the park. One of our favorites is a spur at Trailhead Lane. You can follow this to an apartment complex, and next to that there's a Sheetz. South of Anderson Point Park, alas, is a journey for people with strong bladders. There are zero restrooms along the trail. There are, however, miles and miles of rolling landscape that make you feel far removed from the large city only a few miles distant. 

Come for the bathrooms, stay for the birdhouses! 

Usually, we park at Anderson Point Park and ride either the northern section or the southern section, and add it little connecting greenways to get in about 40 miles of riding. North of Anderson Point Park, you encounter the Mingo Creek Trail, the Smith Creek Greenway, and the Abbotts Creek Trail. The Mingo Creek is the longest, at just over 3 miles, and has some nice boardwalks through wetlands. The Smith Creek Greenway looks like it's planned to eventually connect to a longer greenway, and has an impressive bridge to ride across, but is mainly just a mile through backyards of recently built houses. Abbotts Creek Creek is only about a mile before it hits Falls River Avenue, and is one of the most wildlife rich places you can ride. Your odds of seeing deer here are very high, and even if the deer aren't around the boardwalks will take you over wetlands full of wildflowers. 

Also some truly enormous butterflies.

Speaking of wildflowers, around mile 15, near the site of the old Milburnie Dam, there's was an impressive display when we biked in May, and there are fields south of Anderson Point Park brimming with flowers. In Anderson Point Park itself there's a large meadow, and numerous magnolia trees. Anderson Point Park is also the start of the Crabtree Creek Greenway. Currently, you can bike out about 6 miles before it's shut for maintenance. Two miles south of Anderson Point, you'll encounter the Walnut Creek Greenway, which is over ten miles long, but shows it's age after the first three or four miles. Still, between the Neuse and the connecting greenways, it really wouldn't be difficult to put together 100+ miles of biking without hardly any road crossings. 

A final note is that the Neuse is a segment of two larger trails. The full length is part of North Carolina's Mountain to Sea Trail. South of Walnut Creek, the Neuse is also part of the East Coast Greenway, which will one day be a series of greenways from Maine to Florida. North Carolina has one of the longest continuous segments, allowing you to bike from the center of Durham all the way to Clayton with nearly all of the distance on greenways or park roads. 

Cheryl and I feel very lucky to have a greenway with such a great length and design less than an hour from our house. The Neuse wasn't completely finished when we first started biking, and, much like the American Tobacco Trail, the the trail kept getting longer which pushed us to keep biking further. The fact that both trails are now fully linked up by connecting trails makes the Triangle one of the best places you could want to live if you enjoy biking. 

Kayak on Eno to Hickory Hills Boat Ramp, with side trip up Ellerbe Creek

• Date Kayaked: May 23, 2020
• Posted length: NA
• Total miles Tracked: 9.84 miles 
• Type of  Paddle: River/Lake (flat, low current)
• Conveniences: 24 hour boat ramp, plenty of parking
• Put In:  Eno River Boat Ramp near Red Mill Road, Durham, NC
• Take out:  Hickory Hill Boat Ramp
• Conveniences: 24 hour access, plenty of parking
• Best Features:  Not many motor boats, great area for birds
• Worst Features: Falls Lake can be too shallow even for kayaks during low water
• Wildlife spotted: Osprey, herons, water snakes, other birds
• Vegetation: Forested shores with plenty of wildflowers
• Primary Author: James

Eno River is our hometown river, winding through downtown Hillsborough before entering a State Park that covers about fifteen miles of its shoreline along the north end of Durham. For most of this length, the water is fairly rocky and shallow. You could probably kayak some long stretches, but you'd likely be dragging your kayak over and around gravel beds most of the year. The other thing that makes it unattractive for kayaking is a lack of good launching points. 

Also, there are a lot of water snakes. We count this as a plus, but you may have a different opinion. 

However, once you get past an old railroad bridge near Old Oxford Road in Durham, the river changes in character. Miles before it reaches Falls Lake, the Falls Lake Dam causes the river to slow down, becoming deeper and broader as it leisurely winds through forests. This area has a 24 hour boat ramp not far from Red Mill Road. Some motorboats do launch from here, but most of the watercraft we encounter in this area are other kayaks. Motorboats have a much better access to the lake only ten minutes away, the Hickory Hill Boat Ramp. 

The relative nearness of the two boat ramps has tempted us for some time. It certainly seemed plausible to put in at the Eno Ramp and paddle to Hickory Hill. The only thing that made us nervous was that we'd paddled that end of the lake before and found it to be nearly impassable due to shallow waters. There's a channel you can wind through, but on a glassy smooth lake it can be tricky to find. Still, we decided to just go for it. 

By chance, water levels weren't an issue. Spring rains had swollen the river and the lake far above their normal levels. Areas of the lake that had been dry, grassy fields were now under a yard or more of water. Small oxbow lakes normally cut off by strips of land had rejoined their waters of origin. All through the flooded forests, we could see and hear fish flopping and splashing as they swam among the bushes and branches.  

Not pictured here, the actual boat ramp, which is underwater. 

One nice thing about the water being this high is that it's easy to find shade!

Since the water was so high, we decided to take a shot at going up Ellerbe Creek. We'd visited the mouth of this creek before and found it clogged with flood debris, dead trees and a depressing amount of litter. This time, the dead trees were still blocking the primary channel, but the water was high enough to paddle around them. Once you were past the litter, the creek itself was quite pleasant, with shores abundant with wildflowers and the ruins of an old bridge that once crossed the creek slowly being reclaimed by the wilderness. We kayaked up the creek to Red Mill Road, about a mile, and the next time the water gets that high we may push further up the creek. 

Returning to the lake, we glided along its mirrored surface among numerous water birds. Because of the typical shallowness of this area, many different types of birds nest here, including ospreys and herons. The one downside of this part of the lake is that you're very close to I-85, so there's a more or less constant drone of traffic. 

Once you pass under I-85, there's only about a mile left to reach the Hickory Hill Boat Ramp. There's a sandy area next to the closest ramp that's great for taking out. We have two vehicles that can carry kayaks, so we'd left my car here. We loaded the kayaks and drove back to the Eno Ramp to retrieve Cheryl's vehicle. 

This osprey feeding the young in it's next is maybe 200 feet from the interstate. Apparently, the birds don't like boat traffic, but pay no to attention to road traffic. 

Note that our detour to Ellerbe Creek turned this into a ten mile paddle. But, if you stuck to a direct route, I suspect you could make the journey in six or seven miles. Alternatively, if you were there in equally high water levels, all the side channels and areas of the lake normally too shallow to explore would give you easily a dozen miles or more to enjoy. It's definitely a route we'll paddle again. 

Eno River to Flat River Kayak Trip

• Date Kayaked: March 29, 2020
• Total miles Tracked: 5.1
• Type of  Paddle: River (flat, low current)
• Conveniences: 24 hour boat ramp, plenty of parking
• Put In:  Eno River Boat Launch-Red Mill Road, Durham, NC
• Water Access:  Cement boat ramp (single ramp)
• Best Features: It's our home river
• Worst Features: No facilities. Not even a trashcan. 
• Wildlife spotted: Just turtles. Usually herons, egrets, watersnakes
• Vegetation: Pines, hardwoods, wildflowers
• Primary Author: James

Boats! Starting this blog in January put the third noun in Bikes, Boots & Boats at a bit of a disadvantage. In North Carolina, the water is too cold to kayak from early November to at least the end of March. Still, on March 29, we took advantage of a warm day to run out to one of our local favorites, the Eno River. There are a few different places to paddle on the Eno, but for us the most convenient location is a 24 hour boat ramp near Red Mill Road just north of Durham. The fact that it's 24 hours means that we have been able to do some moonlight paddles from this location, and we also don't need to stress out about kayaking past some arbitrary gate closing time at a park. The launch area has plenty of parking and an easily accessed ramp and dock. That's pretty much it for facilities. No bathrooms, water fountains, picnic tables or even a trash can. 

This section of the Eno is wide and flat. Downstream takes you to Falls Lake and upstream takes you back to Durham. There's current, but not so much you struggle if you choose to go upstream.

Downstream only a mile or so, the Eno intersects with the Flat River.  Depending on the water levels, there are several wide creeks you can paddle around in. If the water is high enough, there's actually a full loop you can paddle up a creek to intersect another creek that flows into the Falls Lake. Then, from Falls Lake you can paddle back to the Eno. This time, though, we just headed up the Flat River. This is another slow, lazy river, passing mostly alongside gameland and a few farms. You do pass fairly near a factory at one point, which can be noisy. But, aside from that brief interruption, the Flat is very remote and peaceful. You see fewer boats than you will if you remain on the Eno. The only wildlife we saw on this late March trip were turtles, but this is a fantastic place to come in warm weather to find herons and egrets, and there are numerous places along the bank that show where deer come to the water.

Depending on the water level, in theory you can paddle the Flat all the way to Oxford Road. We've never quite made it, but even when the water is low you can easily paddle at least two miles up the Flat. 

The downside of there not being a lot of current is that you don't really get much of a rest heading back downstream. The ease of access, relatively rare motor boats, and great scenery keep us coming back. You'll be seeing more posts of different destinations you can reach from this ramp.

Paddling back as the light fades is no problem. The boat ramp's always open!