Paddling Pohick Bay and Gunston Cove

After the two hour "exercise paddle" the day before Kat and I were eager to get out and get those paddles wet again. This time, knowing how I might need to pull my boat over log jams and such, I chose the poly-plastic Necky Elias.

Kat on Pohick Bay 4-12-13

Great Blue Heron peering down at me

Wet lands at full high tide on 4-13-13

Close up of bushes. There was a structure mostly under water here. I believe this was once a homestead.

We started out at Pohick Bay Regional Park from the car-top launch. It is a pebble beach, also used by jet skis and other PWC. We often avoid this park later in the year but early spring, late fall it is both gloriously beautiful and quite a bit less utilized.

We worked our way around the edges of the bay until we entered Pohick Creek itself. As the tide was cresting we got quite far back into the creek. From the mouth of the creek we turned left and explored flooded wetlands before paddling next into Accotink Bay. Here we discovered another pebble beach launch we had never noticed before. We correctly assumed it to be part of the enormous Ft Belvoir installation.

We pulled up on the beach next to some friendly off-duty soldiers who were, as many people do, fishing and drinking beer. We stretched, made use of the facilities and scoped out the picnic pavilions. Then we continued north (to the left) until we came to the wide mouth of the cove. Here the Potomac causes currents to swirl about. We turned south until we were across from the landing we had used to launch. We crossed the cove at this point, a mile wide crossing.

We had a lovely 8.5 miles paddle in different environments, creek, wetlands, two bays and the cove itself. It stayed mostly sunny and with a light breeze. Really nice paddle.

Funny thing, when we got to shore Kat stabilized her boat with one end of her paddle on shore, which seemed squishy. When she stood up she realized she had put the blade of her paddle on a 2 foot long dead fish. Yuck! Then we each pulled our boats up into the park lawn, at which point she dropped her paddle and it landed on an even larger dead fish! This fish was so large it would have been a horror if we had seen it swim past from our boats.

I didn't even know there were fish that large in the Potomac and surrounding area. So now we dub this trip the "dead fish paddle."