On the Water on the 4th

The heavy work finished last night, the racks installed and the kayaks loaded. The gear bags sorted, and everything checked.we were ready for the Fourth of July. So when the morning dawned and the Weather Underground forecast was for sun and clear sky the only thing left was to consider the wind and decide where to launch.

Based in central Maryland we have many choices, so let’s see: Piney Run Park – too small, Baltimore harbor launching at the Canton Waterfront Park Well. there’s Fort McHenry across from the Canton put-in, but the Potapsco River is always busy and the crossing would not be comfortable. Annapolis – again it would be busy with lots of powerboats and confused water. Ok, look north. Lake Marburg in Codorus Park, Pa. but we’ve been there a lot and there are lots of pontoon boats – I call them party barges, way too busy for our tastes. There’s not much to the west, so we looked south. The Potapsco River at Daniels (see some my earlier posts), good, but it’s a short paddle upstream before we hit rapids that neither of us wanted to attempt, and we had a lot of rain in the previous couple of days – fast-moving water with lots of mud. Further south is Seneca Lake in Black Hills Park. That’s good when no one is fishing, but when fishermen are active so are the power boats. Add to the fact that we covered most of the lake about a month ago helped us decide against it. Only one convenient place left to paddle, Tridelphia Lake. Yes, we paddled there only 2 weeks ago but there is very little power boat traffic. Our last trip to Tridelphia opened up a new vista for us, unlike open water, it would have plenty of shade, So we decided another visit was in store.

When we arrived at the Tridelphia Lake Road boat launch ramp the lagoon calm, but we could see the water out on the lake was a bit rougher, nothing to be concerned about, so we unloaded the boats and gear then launched. The paddle up to the head of the lake was into the wind, and seas – lots of work. Once at the head of the lake we turned into a small stream, about 30′ across, and headed into very quiet water. The rains I mentioned earlier caused some run-off from the nearby farms and lots of turbidity so we couldn’t see much underwater. This stream continues for almost a mile and unlike the body of the lake, it is tree covered. We paddled in shade most of the way in pure “wilderness”. Not a sound of a car or truck could be heard, only the calls of many birds, and twice we spotted what we think was a Beaver, but with a loud Splash of its tail it disappeared underwater. The video gives a better feel to our day on Tridelphin Lake.

After tying off to a snag along the creek for lunch we turned back, into sun, and the main body of the lake. The chop that we fought on the outbound part of the trip helped push us along on our return to the car.