An Evening Paddle

Yesterday, after work, I went back down to the James River for an evening in the kayak. I got on the water about 5:45PM and paddled till about 7:45PM. In the 3.6 mile trip upstream and back, I saw maybe a handful of kayaks and one canoe, as well as a handful of small plastic pontoon-like fishing boats. Mostly around the Southwood Canoe Access. Once I got up river to the bridge at the James River Freeway, it was just me and the birds and turtles till I had to turn around and head back.

I saw a lot of birds this trip - four green herons (they would get puffed up when I came close, then squawk their discontent and fly away), three blue herons (one of which was absolutely huge, like a dinosaur flying ahead of me down the river, a few hundred yards at a time), two hawks, six kingfishers, three turkeys and a couple of mature Canada geese with two juveniles.

A little over a mile and a half up river, the stream became so choked with debris that I couldn't easily portage around it. It also seemed to become dry enough that I might have done more dragging and carrying than paddling, so I called it and headed back. We've had a very dry year, so much of what is normally accessible by boat, isn't right now.

Under the train bridge, I found a water spider about 3 1/2 - 4 inches across. It was a big'n!

Nice to get out, though. I love having an easy to manage way to get on the water in the evenings.