Gotta Catch 'Em All!

OK, the title of this entry is a Pokemon reference and the entry is about the Pocomoke, not Pokemon, and so maybe the title isn't 100% appropriate, but the area of the Eastern Shore around Snow Hill does offer a wide collection of outings to "catch".

Patriotic Paddling

The CPA July 4th weekend camping trip to Pocomoke State Park is a long-established annual event, but I've never gone because I've always preferred to spend the holiday with family. With time, though, things change, and this year the family was scattered far and wide - Valerie to NY to visit her mom, David to Pittsburgh, Teddy to Scout Camp with his old troop. Orphaned for the weekend, I joined the CPA trip.

The trip down Friday afternoon was pleasant: not much traffic, a stop for a pretzel at WaWa, good weather. Well, good weather until around the time I got to Snow Hill. It started to thunder and spatter rain about the time I arrived. I got my tent up and we got a pop-up shelter up as well before the heavens really opened up. Suzanne pulled in shortly thereafter and we pitched in to help her get set up quickly. Then it rained and rained. And thundered and thundered. No paddling was going to happen, that's for sure! Since people weren't jazzed about cooking in the rain, some of us headed into the town of Snow Hill for dinner. Needless to say, it stopped raining just about the time we got into town. Plus, the town's two restaurants were packed. So, some folks ordered takeout and we headed back to camp to eat. I skipped the takeout and ate the turkey sandwich I had brought from home.

Setting Out on Saturday

Snow Hill was having it's "First Friday" celebration, which as you might expect in a town with two restaurants and a handful of stores, was pretty small. But we did go and browse in an art gallery (and sampled their wines!) and got a chance to chat with one of the guys from the local kayak/canoe outfitter.

Up the Nassawango River

 Saturday brought better weather. The overall group was large enough (14 people, I think) that we split into different sub-groups for paddling. The trip I went on launched from the campground (that's pretty nice, being able to launch without having to drive anywhere), headed up the Pocomoke, then up the Nassawango River as far as it's navigable. The trip was about 15 miles round trip. Paddling the Nassawango can be a little challenging - it's a narrow, twisty river with some strong currents at the top. Tom B. had brought along his 15 year old grandson, and we were a little concerned about whether he could handle the length and difficulty of the trip - but he did fine!

Saturday afternoon's event was a group effort to install a Hullavator on Suzanne's brand-spanking-new Toyota RAV 4. This turned out to be a comedy of errors, but we were ultimately successful. First we had to hit the brand new car with a mallet - well, really we were baning on the  cross-bars to slide them to the right. Then Suzanne slide her finger while using a knife to open a bag of screws. Fortunately, our crack medical team (Leigh is an EMT and Tom R. is a dentist) jumped in and got her fixed up. I took the role of engineering management and directed the folks doing the install since (a) I can actually read and understand installation directions, and (b) I've done a Hullavator install before.

The Hullavator Installation Team

And it Works!

Saturday night we went back into Snow Hill for dinner - this was a pre-planned event - and then went to the town's fireworks display. While you would expect fireworks to be on the 4th, not the 2nd, a number of the Eastern Shore towns have fireworks and they seem to coordinate so they're spread out over the weekend.

Snow Hill Dinner: Mike & Linda, Mike and Debi, Rich & Sue. Tom R., Sophie and Bela in the background.

Snow Hill Dinner: Leigh & Bela, Jesse, Suzanne 

Sunday morning - guess what - more rain. Gina, who had been camping at Assateague, stopped by. Apparently Suzanne and Gina had talked about scouting some launches over on the Chesapeake Bay - only about 20 minutes away. Since it was kind of yucky weather for paddling, the three of us wound up going out and scouting three launches. First, through the nearly derelict town of Stockton, we checkout out George's Island Landing (which is not on an island, in case you were wondering). Nice facility - plenty of parking, ramp and beach, Porta-Potty, even signs with suggestions for trips. We had thought that if we found a good put-in we might launch and paddle a bit but the weather on the Bay side was terrible - windy, cold, rainy. We were all wishing we had warmer clothes. Instead of launching we continued on to another similar launch just a bit north. Along the way we tried to explore the E. A. Vaughn wilderness area, which on the map listed camping, but were unsuccessful at finding a decent road in and certainly didn't see any camping - in fact, the place was marked with "no camping" signs.

Seen While Exploring

The third landing we explored was pretty dicey. Down a long, muddy dirt road - we got Suzanne's new car splattered with mud in a big way. The side of the road plastered with "No Trespassing for ANY REASON" signs. Finally the road ended right at the water - no developed facility at all, just a road to the water. And more No Trespassing signs. We turned around and left.

Suzanne, Gina and I drove back to Snow Hill looking for lunch, but both restaurants were closed (Sunday of July 4th weekend!). Outside of town the pizza place, Chinese restaurant and McDonald's were open, but the first two of these looked pretty dicey (Rich S. later reported the the Chinese restaurant is, in fact, good) and the third was unappealing. By this time the weather was clearing so we drove to Byrd Park, ate the food we had brought with us then launched our kayaks for a short paddle around the the local part of the Pocomoke River, including going past "Goat Island" which does indeed have goats, though they're not feral.

The Pocomoke River near Snow Hill

Goat Island Resident

Sunday evening was a group potluck. By that point the group had evolved somewhat: Mike and Debi had gone home to New Jersey, and Mike and Linda had left as well, Gina had gone home and Linda (a different Linda) had arrived. I wasn't completely happy with how my dish came out, but all told it was a good and festive meal!

Monday's weather was good and so Suzanne, Tom R., Sophie and I returned to George's Island. We didn't want too long a trip since we all had lots of driving ahead of us, and so we chose to do about a 6 mile circumnavigation of an island. This turned out to be a highlight of the weekend - fun, bouncy water on the exposed side of the island, and flat, calm water on the inside. Pretty scenery. Lots of wildlife, including pelicans, cormorants, horseshoe crabs and dolphins. Dolphins!

Getting Ready to Launch

Salt Marsh

The trip was over just at the right time, which seemed far too soon. We all packed up and headed home. I made a bee-line for the Bay Bridge, wanting to get across before traffic got to bad. Instead of stopping for lunch I just scrounged leftover food out of my groceries and cooler as I drove. As it turns out, I think the rain had driven people home early, since there was little traffic getting over the Bay Bridge.

Well, I didn't "catch 'em all", but I did get to do a selection of old favorites and one new trip. And that's good enough!

Not Really About Me