Muddy Water

 Pautuxent River Park, Jug Bay Natural Area
 

While the skies were certainly blue enough on my Friday off, the water wasn't and the air carried the slight musk of a freshwater tidal marsh. That, of course, was no distraction to the ospreys, cormorants, rockfish or emergent flora. Just the right mix of silence, water lapping, and spring calls.

A pair of projects has me focused on paddling lately; an article on kayaks for the sailing cruiser and a new Chesapeake Bay guide to "The Other Chesapeake." One will be finished this fall, the other--about real backwaters and tiny beaches and everything I like that is not in the guides--I expect to be years in the writing. So what, the work is the payoff, or at least most of it.

I spent this morning at a kayak demo held by Eastern Mountain Sports on the upper Potomac River, paddling a dozen different boats and collecting my ideas, regarding handling, practicality and durability. Except for the cold feet, all fun stuff. I even tried a stand-up paddle board (it was suggested that they solved some of the on-board storage issues), if only to confirm that it's not for me.