Kayaking With Friends 5/1-4/08
In prepartation for guiding a group of ten friends in the area of Church Creek between Eastern Neck and Napley Green I put over at Bogle’s Wharf at the Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge (ENNWR.) The Refuge is six miles south of Rock Hall. Take a left off of Route 20 at the blinker light and proceed through Main Street which becomes Eastern Neck Road, continue six miles until you cross the Eastern Neck Narrows Bridge and on to the Refuge. Follow the signs to Bogles Wharf public ramp. This is the starting point of the Eastern Neck Island Water Trail ( part of the Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network.)
[The water trail is a circular route of about ten miles around the island. (To learn more about this and other Kent County and ‘Greenways’ water trails visit www.kentcounty.com/paddling or www.dnr.state.md.us/greenways/watertrails.html.)
I have paddled the ENNWR water trail several times both in setting up the trail and guiding groups around the trail. I have soloed in each direction several times and taken side trips up Church Creek , Gray’s Inn Creek and of course the many tiny coves on the Island itself. The most ambitious trip around the island was to put over a Tolchester and paddle south past Rock Hall past Eastern Neck Island then back up the Chester River to Cliffs City. (This one way paddle is about 25 miles. And you obviously need a drop off and pick place. I’ll report on this and other long paddles in future entries.) If you choose to paddle the water trail you may get an inexpensive waterproof map at the Refuge Visitor’s center.]
Sorry if I got off track. Today’s paddle was (Eastern Neck, Bogles Wharf to Chruch Creek and back) a warm up and recon trip for the trip from Church Creek two days later. My friend John Foehrkolb and I did the paddle in two hours of leisurely paddling. We put over at Bogles traveled north past points 1- 6 on the watertrail. Bogles (1) and two marked points on Bogle Cove (2 -3) past Duck Inn Trail water entrance (4 - a stopover beach point from which you could walk the winding nature trail) past Boxes Point Trail (5 - another beach area stopover where the trail may be accessed via foot.) Beyond Boxes Point in slightly west of North direction is the mouth of Church Creek. From the mouth of the creek to its mud flat head is 2 mi. There are no public put overs on the creek.
During our paddle we saw great blue herons, mallards, three eagles - two mature and one immature, several osprey and one white tail deer. It is best to paddle this area during the spring and fall. July and August in addition to being very hot are months of the flying tormentors - mosquitoes and various fly species. If you do paddle these waters bring sun screen and insectrepellant. As usual, have a nice paddle. HEM