Angel’s Share Studio

Welcome back to the on going log of what I hope to be many paddles this season.  Today’s paddle, a two hour paddle, up and down Morgan Creek from the Riley’s Mill put-over at the public ramp by the same name.

Riley’s Mill public landing is located just a few miles north of Chestertown, Maryland on route 213.  The ramp is at the end of the road by the same name.  The put-over is hard to soft bottom - good only for kayaks, canoes and very small trailered boats. 

The creek meanders north (to the left) up toward route 213 and south about three plus miles to the Chester River. 

Today I chose to paddle north first just to see how many obstacles arose over the winter months.  I took a leisurely paddle (probably 2.5-3 mi per hour.)

Right at the start I jumped five woodducks.  They were about two hundred feet ahead but their distinct flight and the female sqweal gave them away.  I continually saw these five and several more as I paddled.  In addition there were black and Mallards.  An eagle, a  third to fourth year juvenile crossed my path several times as did blue herons and one green heron.  I did not encounter any marsh rats during this paddle.

About fifteen minutes into the paddle I saw a flock of about ten resident Canada geese (not so remarkable - but…) at the edge of the flock stood a very large whitetail deer.  It, possibly an anterless buck, stood frozen staring at me hoping he was invisible.  I had stopped paddling and allowed the  tide to carry me silently for the next few minutes.

The usual bird calls for that area and early spring sounded through the wooded area and the marsh grasses throughout the paddle - red-winged black birds,  red bellied woodpeckers,  northern flickers,  mourning doves, Carolina wrens, robins, chick a dees were all heard at one point or another.

Two frogs, southern lepard, kept a conversation going for quite a while.

About twenty minutes into the paddle you come to a not too distinctive ‘Y’ in the creek.  The arm to the left is drainage from Urieville Lake located on route 213 north of Riley’s Mill Road.  The right fork on a very high tide will carry you on for another twenty minutes to culverts under Perkins Hill Road.  Unfortunately on  low water you can only paddle about two hundred yards when you come to a very large tree lying across creek (it can be ‘jumped’ at a very high tide.  I have on an especially high tide gone under Perkins Hill Road and paddled thirty yards beyond where you come to a dammed pond.

The Urieville Lake arm (the one to the left) carries you a short distance where it is choked out by water  iris and other plants and downed trees. 

I turned around and slowly meandered down the creek again passing the put-over just to get roughly two hours of paddling in.   This area is great for very large channel catfish.  During the spring perch and large rock fish can be found there as well.

The paddle from the put-over south (to the right) is a great paddle leading to the Chester River (the point of entrance mentioned in my last entry.)  I have paddled this leg many times - two years as on-water support for the local ‘Paddle for Sight’ fund raiser for the Chestertown Lion’s Club.  (Unfortunately the event did not survive the first two years.) 

The paddle down and back is about three-four hours depending on the tide and your paddling skills.

This is but another beautiful area accessed by the many public ramps in Kent, County Maryland.   See you next time.  HEM

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 26th, 2008 at 10:10 pm and is filed under Kayaking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.