We finally got out paddling again this morning, for the first time since mid July. While I’m normally not a huge fan of paddling during the dog days of summer, most years I do get out at least once or twice through late July and August, so this year was a bit of an anomaly. In my opinion, September and October are the best months of the year for paddling in this area, but this September kicked off with a massive heat wave that was great for swimming in the pool, but not so great for paddling. Looks like the sweltering weather is behind us for now, so going forward, I’m hoping to get out about once a week, until it gets too cold.
Today brought us to Solley’s Cove Park in Anne Arundel County, where I have launched numerous times. It’s one of my “go to” places when I’m looking for something 20 minutes or less from home (if I recall, I took my last paddle of 2022 here). This used to be an unofficial “locals only” launch area that was accessible by parking at the nearby American Legion, and carrying the boats down a 100′-or-so path to a small sandy beach. That access point is still there, but a couple of years ago, the county built a public boat ramp, soft kayak launch, and parking area, which is a much nicer and more convenient place to launch. I suspect it’s more popular on weekends now, but it was very quiet on this pleasant, breezy Thursday morning. There are lots of places to paddle here, but today, we headed upstream to Furnace Creek, paddling all the way out past Rt 10, and continuing until it got too shallow. Our total distance was about 4.2 miles — not the longest paddle in the world, but enough to scratch the itch. I won’t be able to paddle next week, but hope to get out one morning the week of the 25th to paddle a little bit on the Patapsco River.