Kayak Virginia Beach

Friday Furlough Kayak trip on Smiths Creek and the Northwest River

Launched the kayak from the Baum Road launch, the water at the launch was a little on the low side, but doable. The weather was in the 70's with the wind out of the South at 10. The first thing I noticed today was a lot of algae on the water, we haven't had any good freezes to keep it in check.

At every turn on just about every exposed log were turtles of just about every local species sunning themselves. The turtles seemed a bit more skittish then usual, normally you can get within a few feet of them, but today most were diving at first sight.

Much of the under growth plants have started growing and blooming in anticipation of the warmer weather to come, the wild Iris's were very abundant, looks like there will be a bumper crop this spring. The blackberries as well as many other early bloomers are either starting to bloom or are beginning to bud.

I took a left and headed South on the Northwest river, pretty much staying to the East side of the river, looking of those off the map/GPS adventures, and I found a few, it seems that some of these smaller creeks get hidden as the area greens up, because I have kayaked past here several times and I never noticed them even though one has a good sized duck blind visible from the river. I really enjoy these little adventures, because you never know how far you can go or what you'll until you get there. Today I was rewarded with seeing a good sized (about 18-24 inches long) snapping turtle, and I was really bummed that I don't have a polarized lens on my camera, because I could see her under the water but because of the glare on the water I couldn't gat a picture. Normally all I see is a nose sticking up out of the water.

The trip back was pretty uneventful, mainly working out the paddling muscles, that haven't seen much use lately. Looking at the weather, looks like the kayak is going to start seeing some heavy use to make up for lost time...