Kayak Virginia Beach

Loops are Cool - North Landing River - Milldam Creek

I have no idea of the names of the creeks to the North and South of Milldam Creek, but I have been looking to do this trips for a while, after seeing that a loop was possible from Satellite pictures. I was not sure that it would be possible to do the loop, at low water, so with the high water levels courtesy of Tropical Storm Ernesto and great weather I decided today was the day. I loaded up the kayak and headed down to Munden Point Park.

Upon arrival, I could see that the water level was still up, passing by the power boat ramp, I could see that the water was up to the top of the bulkheads. I got to the Kayak launch, and the water was up and over the dock by about 6 inches, which kind of made it an easy launch.

Crossing the North Landing River, it was a little rough, but there was very little traffic or wind. I found the entrance to the creek with out any problems, it is a nice wide meandering creek with grasses on both sides, with the occasional stand of tall reeds. On the entire length of the creek there are plenty of tributaries, some large, and some small, that look open to exploration, but I did not know what I would run into on this trip so I decided to save the exploration for another trip. Before I left, I took a long hard look at the satellite photos, and got a pretty good idea of the path I needed to take. There is a lot of potential to make wrong turns, because many off the tributaries are larger then the main channel, so if you are not taking a GPS and have a good sense of direction, you may want to leave yourself plenty of time to back track.

I made it to Milldam Creek, and took a left and straight up the small channel to the North end, this creek continued to get smaller to a width of about 15-20 feet. In low water this may be the only obstacle to doing the full loop, but it appears that it may be doable except in the very lowest water conditions.

Again, not much to see in the way of animals, except for the occasional turtle and fish, I guess everything was still seeking out higher due to the water levels. Again like yesterday, I did notice a lot more predatory birds, including seabirds and vultures in the air, again I guess they are doing the post Ernseto clean up.