Pavilion, Essex Bay, Cranes Beach etc

[spider]

I was glad to meet up with Glen ( Glenster) right about 10:30 at pavilion Beach and quickly opted to make use of the high water and incoming tide (high tide was 12ish) and head over to Fox Creek and do the Circumnavigation of Castle Neck.

Fortunately Glen had scoped things out from land the previous day and knew that things looked pretty ice free back there. So that was a big vote for giving it a try and sure enough there were only 2 small slushy areas we needed to paddle through on Fox Creek.

Excellent few of a Red Tail Hawk who let us get uncommonly close. She was standing right beside the Creek where you go under Argilla Road. We werer beside her before it lifted off and flew briefly up onto bridhe then back down again when we passed . Near as we could tell there she was having "breakfast" with something that was to big to carry off.

We made good time and with the high water we were able to go most any where we wanted. After a brief stop on Hog Island we headed over towards Conomo Point partly so I could get a better idea how it would look from the water.

Wind and the ebbing tide brought us quickly from Conomo out through the entrance of Essex Bay and out along Cranes Beach where we took another short break before making the finall push back to Pavilion Beach against the ebb tide.

That was a bit of a huff and a puff...worked up a sweat on that portion no doubt about it.

We never did get that sunny day we were hoping for but it was a fine day to be out and about on the water.

Saw a fair amount of water fowl...Bufflehead and some other misidentified (by me) ducky things flying about.

Nice day and nice company !

[nancysan]

Just curious, Ross. How long did the trip take you?

Nancy

[glenster]

Launched 11:05 , about 40 min. through Fox Creek, headed sw round back side of Hog & 10 min break. Hog to Conomo with splashing beam sea then nice following sea and a bit of surfing over the flats out to the mouth of the river. Nice ride down the beach, saw a few souls walking, one more quick break then the grind up the river entrance and across bay to the landing, 3:00 sharp.

figure 4 hrs. I've seen posts here done in 2 hrs.

Great company and day on the H2O. Thanks for posting spider ( he's very fast)

g.

[spider]

Just curious, Ross. How long did the trip take you?

Nancy

I might be a bit confused but I don't think I've met Ross yet, though the name does look familar.

For this paddle it was just the two of us Glen and myself. (sorry for all the misspellings apparently I didn't use the edit function quick enough)

Glen had a good idea of how long different sections might take to get from one place to another so we were able to make good time and stretch our legs for a break or two.

I did check up on some of the birds we saw..my vote for the Ducks with the pointed tails and making a fair amount of noise will be a bird called Oldsquaw..also know for being fairly "talkative" so that was one of the big clues as we tried to figure it out....course I could be wrong.....

[nancysan]

I might be a bit confused but I don't think I've met Ross yet, though the name does look familar.

Opps. Sorry. I've met very few of you and I'm terrible with names. But I do hope to get out and paddle with people more, as I know it's safer and will give me more opportunity to be less conservative in my choice of areas. Thanks for the interesting report.