Put In for Thatchers Island

[GJ Carey]

Hi Guys,

I'm looking for some suggestions for put ins that allow access to Thatchers Island without too long a paddle. Also, if possible it needs to be somewhere we could leave a truck overnight.

Thanks in advance.

[bob budd]

Part one is easy, Pebble Beach is closest. Part two not so much, I'd wonder where your truck would be in the morning if you parked at Lane's Cove, which is a managable paddle for you and not overly long. I'd expect you'd have bad luck at any location I can think of. There are several who live close enough to the water on Cape Ann who might offer to have you park in their driveway overnight, but I'll leave it to them. Perhaps you could reply with likely bribes.

[casousa81]

I can second Pebble Beach, as I paddled to Thatchers from there last week. The only potential issue is launching into the dumping surf if you have a swell from the SE. Loblolly cove (right around the corner to the north) is also nice and protected, but the neighbors aren't too keen on people parking there, even for the short period of time needed to launch a boat.

~Chris

[bazzert]

Hi Guys,

I'm looking for some suggestions for put ins that allow access to Thatchers Island without too long a paddle. Also, if possible it needs to be somewhere we could leave a truck overnight.

Thanks in advance.

I had done some research on this recently because we were planning a kids camping trip to Thachers. There is actually a small boat ramp right in rockport itself. I have linked to it here and confirmed with the parking clerk that you can park overnight on any street which is not metered parking. There is room for one or two cars on the ramp itself to unload and then you would have to go a couple of streets away to find an unmetered spot.

The weather was threatening so we just made a day trip of it, but the ramp process was straight forward with the advantage of only a very short carry. We found metered spots just a street away on a busy saturday morning.

Barry.

[bob budd]

As for parking on Pebble Beach it is allowed during the day at the southern end, there is a sign part way down delineating what might be residents only parking.

[GJ Carey]

Thanks Guys, much appreciated.

[GJ Carey]

Hi Guys,

Just an update. We took four kids on their first kayak camping trip out to Thatcher Island this past weekend. We used the put in in Rockport and parked on side streets as advised above, so thanks for the great advice! It worked really well. We didn't hang around long at the ramp, just dropped off boats and gear, and then parked. We loaded the boats and off we went. We were met at Thatcher by the lighthouse keepers who couldn't have been more helpful. They brought their little electric cart to the ramp and picked all the gear and moved it to the campsite for us. Same thing when we were packing up. I tried to get the boys to understand that there wasn't valet service at every camping island they're likely to visit in the future but I'm not sure they believed me!

We had a wonderful two nights with perfect weather, some great rock play and three nice stripers hooked an landed.

A highly recommended trip, close to home but with a great feel of some isolation.