River Rat Recorder

Ten Minutes on Cresheim Creek

Barrier Islands Gallery

I had a yen to get back to my sailing roots in the sedge and sand of the east coast’s barrier islands. I never had much taste for the developed portions of the islands with their mansion “cottages” and salt boxes. The city folks had a dream of living at the shore, formulated during summertime escapes from the city. They only brought the city with them with the social structures and closely packed dwellings, but they neglected to bring much of the culture. It is the wide plains of spartina and the scrubby plants of the dunes that attract me.

The islands are periodically swept clean of history, but for the occasional bleached wreck, and the sedge behind them is the nursery of the oceans as well as the byways of migration. Occasionally, it is good to escape the urban waterways, laden as they are with history, and get to the fresh salt air, the well scoured beaches and the fetid, bountiful, wetlands.

I endeavor to leave nothing but a few footprints soon to be removed by wind and tide. The goal is to not bring any more of the city there, though simply being there defeats that ideal. These pictures are from New Jersey’s barrier islands and those on the ocean side of Virginia’s eastern shore.

A Couple Videos

Bombay Hook Gallery

Located on the edge of Delaware Bay Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge is a curious place. It reflects the federal government’s interaction with nature in the 1930s. A WPA project aimed to create a refuge for birds, not by preserving an environment that was already there but by creating an ideal environment for them. Dikes were built to create freshwater ponds in addition to the saltwater ponds already there. These dikes also support a road. One tours the preserve by car, getting out for short hikes through various landscapes. In mid-March, the birds were abundant, and the landscapes appealed to anyone with an appreciation for wetlands. On a rainy day, driving meant shelter was always near at hand, but at another time, long hikes in a vehicle-free environment might be appreciated.

Schuylkill River Sojourn

A five-day camping and kayaking trip down the Schuylkill River is like being in a time machine with a touchy controller, rocketing back and forth through a few centuries. Paddling and camping to traverse the river goes back thousands of years. One passes nuclear cooling towers and lock keepers houses. The rumbling, clacking trains accompany the drone of highways, all following the river to Philadelphia. There are remnants of the canals that preceded the trains and trucks. In places, one can almost hear the footfalls of the mules and the encouragement of the bargemen. History is much more than Washington’s army becoming a proper army while wintering on these riverbanks

A glance back

beavers

A recent New York Times article about Canadian’s love-hate relationship with the beaver set me off. The animal is seen as destructive because dam building and pond making encroached on human endeavors mainly by creating ponds where none had been before.

Seamanship

Tides for the beginner

What if you could access a force that doubled the speed of your boat? What if you could avoid a force that would cut your progress in half?

Seamanship

Don't Get Run Over by a Tanker

The ships and barges own the channel, and the kayaker has no rights in the channel legally, physically, or philosophically. The best place for a small boat is in the shallows, where a ship would have to plow through many tons of muck to reach a kayaker; ships don’t do well in mud.