I live about 20 minutes from the West Fork of the Stones River in Middle TN. There are numerous drop-in points, but my favorite is isolated, and about two miles paddle to a quiet side creek so secluded, I must push branches away to enter it, backing in and as far up the creek as I can float. Once settled in, the woods come alive with life. Water birds - Kingfishers, Egrets, Grey/Blue and Night Herons land on the shallows and snags in the main river as I watch through the trees, which also serve to form a cool canopy overhead. Something quite large bumps the bottom of my Hugh Horton designed Bufflehead, a huge loggerhead I awakened while backing in. Mental note not to dangle my toes in here. This is where I have come to eat lunch, write notes, pray, and when the full solar eclipse passed, I was here watching the reaction of the birds and fish as the sun disappeared. I have fallen asleep here without a care. Passing boats take no notice of my creek. I paddle back to my car with the current all too soon, wondering why there weren't more people enjoying this little stretch of river, but silently grateful for the solitude.
As a life long paddler and sailor I too have traveled to far looking for adventure. I was always paddling across the larger bays here on the Jersey coast, counting miles and braving troubled waters. Now in my late 70s I have discovered the marshes and tidal rivers of my own backyard and am lucky enough to have over 50 thousand acres National Wildlife Refuge minutes away. Just great paddling!
I get the feeling you are talking about the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife refuge? If so, I have paddled there quite a bit, beautiful little corner of southern NJ.
I have two larger adventures planned. One requires me to build a sailing canoe, but I want to circumnavigate NJ. Yes, I know, New Jersey is a peninsula, but at one time the Delaware and Raritan canal cut across from NY harbor to Trenton. Today the canal still exists, but a small section of it is buried beneath route 1 in Trenton. As far as I can tell, this would require a small portage to reach a nearby creek.
The other I am intending on doing this summer. I want to take my GP14 down to Port Norris and launch her on the Elizabeth River and sail the "backside" of New Jersey down to Cape May and back. The only issue is that safe "ditch points" are few and far between if the weather changes quickly. Being a mostly undeveloped coastline though, I can probably run her into the marshes or up onto one of the many small beaches without too much worry of encroaching on somebody's private land.
Hey , Art, yes I was referring to Forsythe , there is a lot to see there. Out my back door is the Pinelands Preserve with several hundred thousand acres of streams and ponds. I've done some canoe sailing with the ACA , fun stuff. I agree Delaware bay can be very rough with no safe harbor. I tried to find that portage in Trenton where the canal is buried many years back. Seemed it was in a very urban area. Good luck with your plans, I would like to read about that trip.
The first micro adventure was on Lake Champlain around 1972. My family had a 10 foot sailing dinghy and a friend had a similar sized dinghy. We set sail from Shelburne and finished the down wind journey in Charlotte about 7-8 miles away. Provisions were minimal and the wind cooperated. Sailing would not get any simpler.
A similar plan was for the Pacific Ocean in Southern CA. There are a string of down harbors from Long Beach to Huntington to Newport and finally to Dana Point. The prevailing wind is downwind and distance between harbors is relatively short.
Other micro adventures in the works are Lake Isabella in Kern County (home waters), the Morro Bay Estuary (Pacific Ocean), Huntington or Thomas Edison or Florence Lakes in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and the CA delta with the Sacramento TSCA group.
I picked up a 7'7" nutshell pram and a folding bike this past fall. I would love to leave my home tugging the nutshell by bike to a nearby town on theTrent Severn waterway. Then fold the bike up and paddle and sail the canal to Trenton and then the Bay of Quinte. On past Belleville and Picton Ontario to Kingston, Ontario. Then I could tug my little boat by bike to my brother's house. Probably would take a week. Then return home.
I have a family so working full time was a priority,but micro adventures have always been a part of my life. Sometimes with my daughters or friends or alone.
Living in Door County, Wisconsin and surrounded by water gave us lots of opportunities to explore. Friends and I have kayak camped most of the islands in Lake Michigan, paddled the shores of Superior. paddled with whales in the Saint Lawrence River and dolphins along the east and west coasts as well as the Gulf of Mexico.
I guess the most adventurous small trip was paddling from Door County, across 70 miles of open water to S Fox Island in Lake Michigan with a friend, then island hopping for 10 days to the upper peninsula of Michigan.
Life is fun and you have to grab opportunities for adventure when you can.
Since retirement, I've driven to Labrador/Newfoundland, then Vancouver Island and down to the Gulf of Mexico to paddle. This summer I'm heading up North to Tuktoyaktuk, NT, CA to paddle in the Arctic Ocean.
I must credit James Moran (and his friend whose name I forget) for embracing this principle as they paddled their little homemade canoes on streams around SE Minnesota. They were kind enough to invite me. James wrote a book on building your own Kevlar canoe.
I also will microadventure on a whim by driving off course into parts unknown, ignoring maps, seeing what unfolds. Our Driftless Zone at the intersection of MN/IA/WS is great topography to explore.
Am finishing a wood 14' lug sail boat and have already considered testing the sleeping arrangements I have made for it in my driveway. Especially on a very cold night with a makeshift boom tent installed. Also dusting off my kayak and exploring an intriguing lake only two blocks away after looking at it for three years!! Thank you for the inspiration.
Great topic! The Snohomish River Delta fits the micro adventure idea perfectly IMO.
Launch at Everett Marina and head east away from 99% of other boaters. Visit the north end of Jetty Is (most visitors don't make it that far on foot from the dock) and poke around the old industrial mud flats of Smith Is if the tides and your draft are right. In the summer Gray whales can be observed feeding in the shallows where the delta flats meet Possession Sound. Watch out for strong currents in this area though, especially on a falling tide.
If more solitude is desired travel or launch further up river at Langus or Lowell parks. You'll have this stretch of the slow moving Snohomish largely to yourself except when the salmon are running. But even then as soon as you jump off into one of the sloughs you'll find tranquility again. Steamboat and Ebey are the two largest sloughs but each has many smaller tributaries that are equally worth your time.
The bird watching is fantastic around Ebey Is with plenty of variety including many bald eagles when the salmon are in (surprisingly you might also see the occasional harbor seal looking for a fishy meal). Much of Ebey Is is farmland so be prepared when you startle a group of watering cattle around the next sharp bend in the slough!
My Micro adventures this summer will be poking around Lake Union and the ship canal in Seattle. So many interesting things to see! Ship yards that date to the early 1900s but are now repairing state of the art research vessels, fishing vessels that ply the bearing sea when not in Seattle, floating homes, seaplanes and the list goes on if new things to see. I sold my 28 foot sailboat due to the cost of maintenance and am excited for the inclose and shallow water exploration on a much smaller craft. Following the March Mini madness with interest as I decide what my ride will be!
I live about 20 minutes from the West Fork of the Stones River in Middle TN. There are numerous drop-in points, but my favorite is isolated, and about two miles paddle to a quiet side creek so secluded, I must push branches away to enter it, backing in and as far up the creek as I can float. Once settled in, the woods come alive with life. Water birds - Kingfishers, Egrets, Grey/Blue and Night Herons land on the shallows and snags in the main river as I watch through the trees, which also serve to form a cool canopy overhead. Something quite large bumps the bottom of my Hugh Horton designed Bufflehead, a huge loggerhead I awakened while backing in. Mental note not to dangle my toes in here. This is where I have come to eat lunch, write notes, pray, and when the full solar eclipse passed, I was here watching the reaction of the birds and fish as the sun disappeared. I have fallen asleep here without a care. Passing boats take no notice of my creek. I paddle back to my car with the current all too soon, wondering why there weren't more people enjoying this little stretch of river, but silently grateful for the solitude.
As a life long paddler and sailor I too have traveled to far looking for adventure. I was always paddling across the larger bays here on the Jersey coast, counting miles and braving troubled waters. Now in my late 70s I have discovered the marshes and tidal rivers of my own backyard and am lucky enough to have over 50 thousand acres National Wildlife Refuge minutes away. Just great paddling!
I get the feeling you are talking about the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife refuge? If so, I have paddled there quite a bit, beautiful little corner of southern NJ.
I have two larger adventures planned. One requires me to build a sailing canoe, but I want to circumnavigate NJ. Yes, I know, New Jersey is a peninsula, but at one time the Delaware and Raritan canal cut across from NY harbor to Trenton. Today the canal still exists, but a small section of it is buried beneath route 1 in Trenton. As far as I can tell, this would require a small portage to reach a nearby creek.
The other I am intending on doing this summer. I want to take my GP14 down to Port Norris and launch her on the Elizabeth River and sail the "backside" of New Jersey down to Cape May and back. The only issue is that safe "ditch points" are few and far between if the weather changes quickly. Being a mostly undeveloped coastline though, I can probably run her into the marshes or up onto one of the many small beaches without too much worry of encroaching on somebody's private land.
Hey , Art, yes I was referring to Forsythe , there is a lot to see there. Out my back door is the Pinelands Preserve with several hundred thousand acres of streams and ponds. I've done some canoe sailing with the ACA , fun stuff. I agree Delaware bay can be very rough with no safe harbor. I tried to find that portage in Trenton where the canal is buried many years back. Seemed it was in a very urban area. Good luck with your plans, I would like to read about that trip.
The first micro adventure was on Lake Champlain around 1972. My family had a 10 foot sailing dinghy and a friend had a similar sized dinghy. We set sail from Shelburne and finished the down wind journey in Charlotte about 7-8 miles away. Provisions were minimal and the wind cooperated. Sailing would not get any simpler.
A similar plan was for the Pacific Ocean in Southern CA. There are a string of down harbors from Long Beach to Huntington to Newport and finally to Dana Point. The prevailing wind is downwind and distance between harbors is relatively short.
Other micro adventures in the works are Lake Isabella in Kern County (home waters), the Morro Bay Estuary (Pacific Ocean), Huntington or Thomas Edison or Florence Lakes in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and the CA delta with the Sacramento TSCA group.
Trailer up and go (Clint Chase Deer Isle Koster).
I picked up a 7'7" nutshell pram and a folding bike this past fall. I would love to leave my home tugging the nutshell by bike to a nearby town on theTrent Severn waterway. Then fold the bike up and paddle and sail the canal to Trenton and then the Bay of Quinte. On past Belleville and Picton Ontario to Kingston, Ontario. Then I could tug my little boat by bike to my brother's house. Probably would take a week. Then return home.
I have a family so working full time was a priority,but micro adventures have always been a part of my life. Sometimes with my daughters or friends or alone.
Living in Door County, Wisconsin and surrounded by water gave us lots of opportunities to explore. Friends and I have kayak camped most of the islands in Lake Michigan, paddled the shores of Superior. paddled with whales in the Saint Lawrence River and dolphins along the east and west coasts as well as the Gulf of Mexico.
I guess the most adventurous small trip was paddling from Door County, across 70 miles of open water to S Fox Island in Lake Michigan with a friend, then island hopping for 10 days to the upper peninsula of Michigan.
Life is fun and you have to grab opportunities for adventure when you can.
Since retirement, I've driven to Labrador/Newfoundland, then Vancouver Island and down to the Gulf of Mexico to paddle. This summer I'm heading up North to Tuktoyaktuk, NT, CA to paddle in the Arctic Ocean.
Just keep exploring.
I must credit James Moran (and his friend whose name I forget) for embracing this principle as they paddled their little homemade canoes on streams around SE Minnesota. They were kind enough to invite me. James wrote a book on building your own Kevlar canoe.
I also will microadventure on a whim by driving off course into parts unknown, ignoring maps, seeing what unfolds. Our Driftless Zone at the intersection of MN/IA/WS is great topography to explore.
Am finishing a wood 14' lug sail boat and have already considered testing the sleeping arrangements I have made for it in my driveway. Especially on a very cold night with a makeshift boom tent installed. Also dusting off my kayak and exploring an intriguing lake only two blocks away after looking at it for three years!! Thank you for the inspiration.
Roger Barnes showed me what 14' can do - it is delightful to get out and overnight on her - enjoy and congrats on your build
Great topic! The Snohomish River Delta fits the micro adventure idea perfectly IMO.
Launch at Everett Marina and head east away from 99% of other boaters. Visit the north end of Jetty Is (most visitors don't make it that far on foot from the dock) and poke around the old industrial mud flats of Smith Is if the tides and your draft are right. In the summer Gray whales can be observed feeding in the shallows where the delta flats meet Possession Sound. Watch out for strong currents in this area though, especially on a falling tide.
If more solitude is desired travel or launch further up river at Langus or Lowell parks. You'll have this stretch of the slow moving Snohomish largely to yourself except when the salmon are running. But even then as soon as you jump off into one of the sloughs you'll find tranquility again. Steamboat and Ebey are the two largest sloughs but each has many smaller tributaries that are equally worth your time.
The bird watching is fantastic around Ebey Is with plenty of variety including many bald eagles when the salmon are in (surprisingly you might also see the occasional harbor seal looking for a fishy meal). Much of Ebey Is is farmland so be prepared when you startle a group of watering cattle around the next sharp bend in the slough!
My Micro adventures this summer will be poking around Lake Union and the ship canal in Seattle. So many interesting things to see! Ship yards that date to the early 1900s but are now repairing state of the art research vessels, fishing vessels that ply the bearing sea when not in Seattle, floating homes, seaplanes and the list goes on if new things to see. I sold my 28 foot sailboat due to the cost of maintenance and am excited for the inclose and shallow water exploration on a much smaller craft. Following the March Mini madness with interest as I decide what my ride will be!