| Summary | |
| Owner | MITOC Gallery Administrator |
| Creation Date | 2007-01-06 17:59:17 UTC-0500 |
| Description |
Wingaersheek Beach and around Crane's Beach January 6, 2007 Rick Abbot, William Chen, John Hansman, Deb Swartz, Chris Glazner Photos by William, report by Chris Trip Report You know winter is off to a great start when the first two trip reports of the year are kayaking...and both trips were highly enjoyable. With Winter School upon us, I'd normally be really upset for days in the 60s and a complete and total lack of snow. Today, however, was entirely too nice to miss winter one little bit. Rick rounded up a few folks who already had their own kayaks for a quickly planned trip. The forecast was a bit iffy, but we all needed to get out. We put in on Wingaersheek Beach on the north side of Cape Anne, without any definite goals. It was gray and there were scattered showers, but still, it was warm. I'm talking no need for gloves warm. I'm talking William went in short sleeves warm. We passed many houses heading north to Crane's Beach. The water was calm, except for right off the southern tip of Crane's, with provided a little chop. We headed into Essex Bay, a place in the summer that is overrun by party boaters and greenheaded flies. Today, we had the place to ourselves. We landed at Hog's Island for a walk around and a snack. You could see showers moving around us, but we had managed to avoid them. Then, a peek of blue. Hopping back in our kayaks, we decided to look for a tidal creek that could lead us around to the north side of Crane's Neck for a circumnavigation. The option would add an hour or two, but we thought it would be worth it. Very good call. We soon found the creek entrance (landmark: a larger white house set a little high up from the others, with grass in front) We headed into the creek, and were rapidly carried through by the flooding tide. After a nice paddle through the salt marsh, we found ourselves looking at the houses of Little Neck with beautiful, beautiful blue skies. We landed near the north end of Crane's Neck for another break. We had blue skies, turquoise waters, and a warm breeze. This was seriously nicer than many days I spent paddling this summer. It was awesome. As we headed back down Crane's Beach, we started to see people....lots of people. Other people in kayaks, people on the beach...in shorts...building sand castles....beach patrol. Waverunners! Wait, are you sure this was January? The trip down Crane's Beach was awesome. We stopped and floated a couple times just to soak it all in. By the time we got back to Wingaersheek Beach around 3:15, the place was mobbed. Cars extended as far as the eye could see down the road filled with people anxious to get in (and take our parking spaces). A far cry from the deserted scene at 10 am! Despite how sad I am regarding our total and utter lack of winter, in this my last chance for a real winter for quite some time, I am very, very thankful for days like today. It was simply wonderful, and we had a great solid group to paddle with and enjoy the day. Stats:
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