Walk around the lake
The snow is all gone. A few patches hide in the hollows behind trees, and on the north side of hills. Surprising when you do find it, like stumbling on a small furtive animal.
Potomac River Float Trip
Emily in her kayak
One nice thing about a big loop in a river… It doesn’t take much driving to set up the shuttle to float it. Saves a lot of time.
On Sunday, we left Emily’s car at the ramp at Four Locks, then loaded up the boats and headed over to McCoy’s Ferry. It’s a short trip, but we passed through tunnels under two canal aqueducts and a really high train trestle to get there. The ramp at McCoy’s Ferry isn’t in great shape, but we got loaded and launched without too much trouble.
Capsize No. 1
Bill watching the clouds build
I alluded to this story back in the summer, but was so busy then I couldn’t take time to tell it. Roger Rodibaugh recently reminded me that he and a few other folks have been waiting quite patiently to hear it. Actually, several adventures from last summer slipped by unaccounted for that I should revisit. Now, with it cold and snowy outside, seems a good time to get back to them.
Dave Lucas, Helen Marie, and the New Project
Helen Marie
Beaufort is about halfway to Bradenton, Florida, land of Dave Lucas and his band of merry boat builders. So this trip offered a good opportunity to make a quick raid on “Sure It’s Wood” Forest to abscond with the new boat project (about which more presently). But doing it in a day meant leaving before daylight and returning long after dark, with only a brief visit in between.
Continue reading “Dave Lucas, Helen Marie, and the New Project”
Salt Marsh Prairie
A salt marsh savanna
The vast salt marshes of the Low Country gave a name to the city of Savannah. Seemingly endless expanses of salt grass stretch from horizon to horizon, dotted with distant hummocks – small islets of pine, live oak and palmetto. These spartina marshes range all along the Atlantic coast from Newfoundland to Florida, but there are more here than anywhere else – covering 600 square miles in South Carolina alone.
Calm After the Storm
The day following the storm is eerily calm. Relentless wind of the day before left patterns scoured in the sand, but otherwise no other sign. The sea was flat and calm all the way to the horizon, gently lapping at the beach, quite unlike an ocean. The sky absolutely clear.
A sea change.
Sea Spray and Shrimp Nets
Galloping horses, blowing manes
The girls headed back north in a storm. It would dump rain, then sleet, then snow all along their route, eventually diverting Emily to stay with a friend in Harrisonburg. A day later she would follow it up through New England to Maine, through several feet of freshly plowed snow.
Here at the beach the wind blew hard all day. It tore the tops off a tormented sea. It drove sand in snaking tatters down the beach, piling it up in drifts, a gritty counterpart of the snow drifts up north.