Vegan.Hiker
Member
- Joined
- Jul 5, 2014
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- 2,099
This wasn't one of my favorite trips but I'm gonna try to have some fun with this anyways...
If you're looking for grand vistas or austere rock formations you're gonna have to look elsewhere cause this is a trip report about Delaware. It wasn't my bag really, but hey, maybe some of you will find it different enough to serve as a nice change of pace.
After back to back weekends in Vermont and the Adirondacks, I was going to hit up New Hampshire last weekend. For some reason though, I just didn't feel like schlepping up a mountain this time. I felt like taking it easy and going somewhere quiet and relaxing with Joey. So I loaded a kayak on my car and figured I'd check out the cypress swamps in southern Delaware surrounding Trap Pond State Park.
These are the northernmost Bald Cypress swamps in the US, and are supposed to be reminiscent of the ecology and biodiversity of the swamps in the southeast. I had wanted to check this out for some time.
The drive through Delaware is mainly through farmland. On my drive down, I pulled over on the side of the road to take a picture of the sun setting.
One somewhat funny thing that happened to me while I was paddling. All of a sudden out of nowhere there was a huge splash like 15' from my kayak. It sounded like someone dropped a bowling ball off the roof of a house. I was like wtf?!? Joey is freaking out and this happens 2 or 3 more times. My first thought was "oh sh*t, I really didn't do my research this time, I had no idea there were gators this far north". I eventually realized there was a beaver damn about 10' behind me and it was an ornery beaver understandably pissed and slapping his tail cause we were too close to his dam. I gave him some space and once I got a little further I got some of his hissy fit on film. There is a little clip with a blue heron taking flight at the end as well.
It was cloudy early in the morning and there was some fog on the water when I launched. The plan was to cross Trap Pond, find the maze of swamp channels, and take the main channel down to another watershed called Racoon Pond. There was also another main channel called the Terrace channel that I wanted to check out as well.
Even in Trap Pond before you hit the swamps, the water had zero translucency, it was black water. Sort of like paddling in Guinness beer.
Where the pond looks like it ends, you can continue paddling through the trees. I was on the lookout for the main channel. It's was hard not to get lost in here.
Had to paddle through some dense stuff at times
The main channel, I think?
One thing I did like were the great blue herons. It's really cool to see them fly. They have enormous wing spans and look like mini pterodactyls when they fly.
Endless side channels like this of all sizes. Was really surprised I didn't get lost. I set some GPS way points just in case.
One lone sign in the middle of nowhere. I was surprised to see this but glad that I was heading in the right direction.
There were some cool reflections and it was kinda cool seeing the light filter through the trees in different ways.
Some more confusing channels branching off.
So I think this was Racoon Pond, but who the hell knows.
I saw these two love birds just hanging out like bumps on a log.
Later that night I launched at another area called Trussum Pond about an hour before sunset. I didn't stick around long because you couldn't really see the sun setting in the thick surrounding vegetation and the creepiness factor just started to multiply out here as it got dark, but there was a nice amount of wildlife out. Several deer walking the water's edge which I failed to get a good picture of, and some nice blue herons.
Here's a noisy and out of focus sequence of shots of a Blue Heron taking flight around dusk.
I did a short 4 mile hike the next day with Joey from our campsite but I didn't bother bringing my camera for that. The weekend was relaxing and different than my normal weekend trips so it turned out well in that respect. The weather was also good and there were surprisingly very few bugs, but I won't be coming back to paddle the swamps anytime soon.
If you're looking for grand vistas or austere rock formations you're gonna have to look elsewhere cause this is a trip report about Delaware. It wasn't my bag really, but hey, maybe some of you will find it different enough to serve as a nice change of pace.
After back to back weekends in Vermont and the Adirondacks, I was going to hit up New Hampshire last weekend. For some reason though, I just didn't feel like schlepping up a mountain this time. I felt like taking it easy and going somewhere quiet and relaxing with Joey. So I loaded a kayak on my car and figured I'd check out the cypress swamps in southern Delaware surrounding Trap Pond State Park.
These are the northernmost Bald Cypress swamps in the US, and are supposed to be reminiscent of the ecology and biodiversity of the swamps in the southeast. I had wanted to check this out for some time.
The drive through Delaware is mainly through farmland. On my drive down, I pulled over on the side of the road to take a picture of the sun setting.
One somewhat funny thing that happened to me while I was paddling. All of a sudden out of nowhere there was a huge splash like 15' from my kayak. It sounded like someone dropped a bowling ball off the roof of a house. I was like wtf?!? Joey is freaking out and this happens 2 or 3 more times. My first thought was "oh sh*t, I really didn't do my research this time, I had no idea there were gators this far north". I eventually realized there was a beaver damn about 10' behind me and it was an ornery beaver understandably pissed and slapping his tail cause we were too close to his dam. I gave him some space and once I got a little further I got some of his hissy fit on film. There is a little clip with a blue heron taking flight at the end as well.
It was cloudy early in the morning and there was some fog on the water when I launched. The plan was to cross Trap Pond, find the maze of swamp channels, and take the main channel down to another watershed called Racoon Pond. There was also another main channel called the Terrace channel that I wanted to check out as well.
Even in Trap Pond before you hit the swamps, the water had zero translucency, it was black water. Sort of like paddling in Guinness beer.
Where the pond looks like it ends, you can continue paddling through the trees. I was on the lookout for the main channel. It's was hard not to get lost in here.
Had to paddle through some dense stuff at times
The main channel, I think?
One thing I did like were the great blue herons. It's really cool to see them fly. They have enormous wing spans and look like mini pterodactyls when they fly.
Endless side channels like this of all sizes. Was really surprised I didn't get lost. I set some GPS way points just in case.
One lone sign in the middle of nowhere. I was surprised to see this but glad that I was heading in the right direction.
There were some cool reflections and it was kinda cool seeing the light filter through the trees in different ways.
Some more confusing channels branching off.
So I think this was Racoon Pond, but who the hell knows.
I saw these two love birds just hanging out like bumps on a log.
Later that night I launched at another area called Trussum Pond about an hour before sunset. I didn't stick around long because you couldn't really see the sun setting in the thick surrounding vegetation and the creepiness factor just started to multiply out here as it got dark, but there was a nice amount of wildlife out. Several deer walking the water's edge which I failed to get a good picture of, and some nice blue herons.
Here's a noisy and out of focus sequence of shots of a Blue Heron taking flight around dusk.
I did a short 4 mile hike the next day with Joey from our campsite but I didn't bother bringing my camera for that. The weekend was relaxing and different than my normal weekend trips so it turned out well in that respect. The weather was also good and there were surprisingly very few bugs, but I won't be coming back to paddle the swamps anytime soon.
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