Mason Neck Lotuses

I launched my kayak from Mason Neck with two goals: (1) since it was lotus blossom season, to visit the grove of lotuses (can an area of water flowers be called a grove?) I discovered last year, and (2) to get in a ten mile paddle. It's hard for me to believe, but it's mid-July and I have neither broken ten miles on a paddle nor practiced rolling this year. Sheesh. Anyway, I succeed in my first goal, but there were so many distractions that I didn't nearly achieve the second (according to Strava my trip totaled 7.1 miles). 

There's not much to say about Mason Neck that I haven't said before, so this post will be mostly pictures. Mason Neck remains my favorite local place to paddle. The big, open bay, the birds in the wildlife refuge, the easy launch - all great. 

On this trip I didn't head across Belmont Bay towards the Occoquan (and therefore didn't check on my geocache). Rather, I followed the shoreline with the goal of heading to the lotuses and then out into the river. I was surprised on the paddle out that I saw not a single eagle, but they must just have been on coffee break or something, since on the way back I saw so many that I eventually gave up photographing them.

Sticking the nose of my boat into the lilies.

The lotus grove (or whatever it should be called) sits behind some breakwaters near where the bay opens out into the river. I was a week or so early - the lotuses were just starting to bloom - but with the lotus flowers and the water lilies, it was still pretty spectacular. The lotuses at Kenilworth Gardens are pink; these are yellow.

That bee appreciates the flowers too!

A sunny day - the flower looks illuminated.

After nosing around the lilies and looking at them from both sides of their extent (see, I avoided using the word "grove"), I continued on, around the corner into the river, where, it appeared, the eagles had finally shown up for work. There were a lot of eagles in immature plumage mussing around like the teenagers they are, plus plenty of eagles in mature plumage. Every once in a while an eagle would fly past low to the water like something out of Top Gun. I couldn't get pictures of these high speed maneuvers - by the time I'd get my camera out they'd be long gone - but it was fun to watch.

Here's a subset of my eagle photos. I didn't even bother photographing any other birds - heck, as I mentioned above, I couldn't even get all the eagles.

I think this is an immature bald eagle

Because I had spent so much time looking at flowers and birds, I turned around well before the five mile point. On the way back I stopped at the paddle-in campsite, which seems to be little used and poorly maintained. There are three campsites, each with a gravel pad. The whole place, including the campsite pads, is now overgrown with weeds. Two of the campsites site right next to each other, and the third is very close by as well. Best used by friends, or neighborly people. Up the hill there's a Portapotty, which means there must also be a road back to civilization. The landing area is a small beach. From the beach there are some crumbly steps up to the campsite, and a wood ramp which looks intended for people to slide their boats up to campsite level (there's really not enough room at the bottom to securely beach them).

I had brought my good camera with me (hence the better than usual eagle photos). This camera is not fully waterproof, but it is supposedly splash-proof - can get a little wet. I always carry the camera in a dry bag, but on this trip I was a little sloppier than usual about keeping water off it. It never got really wet, though. Still, when I got back to the launch I found that the viewfinder screen wasn't working. I thought I must have shorted the whole thing out. Plus, there was condensation inside the eyepiece. I figured the camera was toast. Fortunately, once it dried out it resumed working properly. Lesson-learned: splash-proof, not so much. I still managed to get a few pictures, including a little head sticking out of the marsh. I thought it was a frog, but was informed that it was a turtle.

Turtle (or maybe a frog) in the marsh by the put-in.

A snake which swam past my kayak,

 

I Can't Take Your Call Right Now ...

Mason Neck is one of my perennial favorites for kayaking. It's a low stress launch - easy carry, plenty of parking, real bathrooms. The scenery is beautiful and varied, and there's always wildlife - eagles in particular. I launched there Saturday with the intention of doing a ten mile paddle out into the river.

There was no disappointment when it came to bird life - ospreys, herons, and probably half a dozen eagles. I got to watch a pair of eagles arguing with an osprey. Good stuff overall.

After a bit of paddling I decided to take a break. I paddled up to the beach and pulled out my phone to see how far I had gone (I was running Strava). Well, at 4.1 miles I was short of my five mile target. I noticed that I had a new voice mail from an area code I didn't recognize - ahh, it was a call back from a kayaking outfitter in Maine I had called about renting during my upcoming trip.

"Hey, this is Dan at Duck Trap Kayak ... let me know how many days you need and do you need a real sea kayak, y'know, a longer boat where you sit in it and don't see your legs, or do you need a recreational kayak, the shorter, wider boats with the bigger opening where when you're sitting in it you can see your legs?" It makes sense for the guy to assume that the random customer doesn't know the difference between a sea kayak and a rec boat, but it was funny hearing this message as I was sitting in my kayak in the middle of a paddle.

Taking a Break

Anyway, not much else to report. I decided to turn back since it was getting quite hot. I swung a little wider out into the river on the way back and stopped to practice a few rolls near some anchored power boaters - two rolls successful, then I blew the third one! - and so my total was about 8.7 miles. Not bad for a hot summer day.

Pre-Birthday Paddle

Yvonne, Tom, Cyndi, Me, Dave, and Rob (photo by Suzanne)

My half-century birthday is not being observed in one big bang party. Rather, it's being celebrated through a series of events: a dinner party at home, dinner out with my brother and dad, dinner with my family, and the subject kayaking outing with my kayaking friends. Mason Neck State Park has become the traditional location for my birthday paddles and so I invited a group of my friends out for a trip from Mason Neck to Leesylvia Park .

The group wound up being eleven people - quite a nice size, and at that was down a few at that from the original count due to some last minute drop-outs due to the weather (not everyone has full cold weather gear, and conditions were right on the edge in terms of needing it) and personal reasons. As always we got a punctual start despite some folks coming from as far away as Baltimore.

It's that time of year where it's impossible to dress properly: if you're dressed warmly enough for immersion you wind up sweating while you paddle. I tried my best to ride the line and still wound up working up quite a sweat inside my dry suit. A few people on the trip got cold; I can't fathom how that could be when we were exerting ourselves on a 50 degree day while all bundled up - and I'm almost always colder than everyone else. Admittedly, there was a bit of a wind blowing: more than forecast, and enough to turn Belmont Bay into an interesting mish-mash of chop.

I was pretty tired starting out, as I had driven back from Brooklyn the night before after spending a few days working with my brother to clean up my dad's house after it flooded during Hurricane Sandy. I had gotten up early and made a mad dash around the house gathering up and loading my gear. However, being on the water always invigorates me and I soon forgot my weariness as I watched the eagles and negotiated the choppy ride over to Leesylvania, where we took an early lunch break in one of the picnic pavilions. Dave and Cyndi shared a hummus platter, I brought a box of cookies from a fine Italian bakery in Brooklyn, others had other good stuff - there was plenty of food for all! Tom brought along his suggestive Banana Guard.

Ralph hops a freight train

We launched back into the surf and headed under a high railroad bridge into Neabsco Creek. A freight train rattled over the bridge just as we were passing under it, adding noise and drama as it clackity-clacked overhead. Soon, though, quiet returned and we enjoyed the calm waters of the creek. We even spied a few tundra swans as we did our exploring.

The ride back was into the wind, which meant a pounding ride as the boats smashed over the waves. My wooden kayak doesn't have a very buoyant bow and so it tends to slice through rather than go over waves. This makes for a smoother but slower and wetter ride as waves roll across the front deck. In any case, the ride back was an exhilarating workout and we all arrived back with smiles on our faces, even the few who had lost feeling in their feet.

About half the group stopped at Glory Days grill for a post-paddling warm-up snack. All-told, the tally was eleven people, twelve miles, four eagles, three tundra swans - and a partridge in a pear tree (oops, I shouldn't make that reference until after Thanksgiving - sorry!).

Track Map

For the record, my birthday celebration included:
- A dinner party at home with some close friends
- Dinner out with my dad & brother on fashionable Cortelyou Rd. in Brooklyn
- This kayaking trip
- Dinner outwith Valerie & the boys at Mad Fox
- Sad to say, a little extravagance in clothes shopping in preparation for my new job.
- Since my birthday was the day before Thanksgiving, our Thanksgiving dinner out was kinda sorta a birthday celebration too.

Saturday AM, Mason Neck

4 AM, raging thunderstorm. Feels good to be safe and sound in bed, but my paddling plans are at risk. 6 AM, light rain. Beginning to think of bagging paddling and working out on the erg instead, but I go downstairs and check the weather online - hmmm, looks like there's going to be a break in the weather. 7:15 AM, load the boat. The sky is clearing a little. 8:03 AM, pass through the gate at Mason Neck State Park just after the park opens. Unload and get on the water a little after 8:30.

It's beautiful out. Not too hot. A little foggy/hazy, the kind of mist that makes things seem a little unreal. I say a prayer of thanks for being able to experience this scene. As I paddle the water is like glass. The iffy weather has scared most people off for the day - there are a few fishermen out and a handful of recreational motor boaters, but other than that, the river is mine. I paddle around out of Belmont Bay and into the river, the paddle north a ways. The slightly foggy weather seems to be encouraging the birds to stay out and hunt a little later than usual. In fact, eagles are out in force! It's a mere twelve minutes after launching when I spot my first eagle (a mature bald) and in total I have six separate eagle sightings, both mature and immature plumage. I'm not sure, though, whether I saw six different eagles (I'm guessing it was three).

After an hour or so I turn around and head back. As I come around the point back into the bay (and, interestingly, cross the Virginia/Maryland State Line), I startle some ospreys. They're noisy birds, particularly when defending their territory, and so my entry into their space causes them to let loose a cacophony of sound. For some reason this strikes me as funny and I wind up sitting there laughing out loud for a little while before paddling on.

I come upon a motorboat anchored near shore. Two little girls are playing in the water. They say "hi" and show me a trick they're doing with a stick in the water. We talk for a few moments.

At one of the beach areas along the Mason Neck shore I stop and practice some rolls. The session I did with Dave last week really helped. I haven't been comfortable before rolling the Shearwater, so I was happy to discover that this time I was doing it pretty cleanly. It'll be even better once I get the enhanced thigh braces built and fitted.

Finally, I laze my way back to the put-in. I'm eager to see how much water there is in the hatches. Yesterday I put new gasket material on both hatches in an attempt to fix the insane leakiness of these hatches. The result? 50% success. The forward hatch was almost completely dry - maybe a 1/4 cup of water in it. The rear hatch, though, was still a problem. Better than before, but there was at least a gallon in there. Hmmm, back to the drawing board.

After getting off the water and changing into dry clothes I hiked a couple of the trails at the park - about 1.8 mi in all - to scope them out as a locale for my upcoming meditation walk. Then I went on my way. Great morning at the park.