After AMA and I checked into the Airbnb, we decided to take a stroll into downtown Chestertown. I wanted to put off paddling another leg until 5 or 6 pm since there was a chance of pop-up storms in the afternoon, so we had some time to kill. We walked out the front door and it started drizzling. Our Airbnb host offered us umbrellas so we took her up on the offer.

We walked about 100 yards down the driveway and into the street and it began to DOWNPOUR. We quickly decided to head back to the house and just chill out. Good decision. It poured for a good half hour and thundered a little. I was glad I chose to wait a while to paddle!

While we were in the house just chatting, I finalized my plan for my sunset paddle. I would drive up to Still Pond Station Park, launch, and paddle down to Fairlee Creek, this time ending on the beach at the restaurant I had seen that morning, thus avoiding the strong currents and cutting my paddle short by about a mile. AMA agreed to meet me at the restaurant beach around 8 pm.

I had already paddled north out of Still Pond Station last year, so I knew what the launch looked like. My plan was to check the radar one more time before I launched, just to be sure all the storms were gone for the day, but I had zero signal. I did my best to analyze the clouds and listen for thunder, and all seemed well so I began unloading my kayak. Holy COW it rained a lot earlier! I must’ve had two gallons of water in my cockpit! Luckily, I had my bilge pump handy to get the water out before launching.

While it was absolutely beautiful paddling into the sunset, it was also HOT! I was paddling directly into the sun and sweating more than I did during the peak heat of the afternoon.

I didn’t let the heat get to me too much though. I rarely paddle at sunset. In fact, I rarely even SEE the sunset! Ever since I had Patrick, it’s always dinner time, homework time, bath time, bed time… some kind of TIME that doesn’t free me up too often to see the sunset. So needless to say, it was a real treat to paddle at sunset.

The earth science nerd in me was intrigued by the size of the pebbles and rocks on the beaches I passed on this trip. Actual rocks and pebbles, not sand and marsh mud like the lower Chesapeake. The further up the bay, the larger the rocks and sediment!

Another notable thing from this trip was the number of sting rays I saw! I didn’t count, but it was in the dozens. I saw their wing tips breaking the surface, and sometimes they splashed around. In fact, one of them splashed so close to my kayak that I screamed! I had flashbacks to my encounter near Mockhorn Island back in 2015 when I stirred up -what I think was- a sting ray in about 6 inches of water. That one actually smacked the hull of my boat!

The first half of this trip was pretty chill and I felt like I was making good time. But as I rounded a point of land and realized that Fairlee Creek was still a good 4 miles away, I felt run down. I was ready to be done. I paddled about 3 miles across open water, and if you have read prior blog posts of mine, you know I hate open water. It’s boring and it feels like I’m making no progress because there’s no benchmarks or stationary scenery to judge my progress. But I’m here writing this post now, so clearly I made it to Fairlee Creek without any issue.

As I rounded the last little corner of land, I saw the restaurant (vacant – it is closed on Wednesdays), the beach, and AMA sitting at a picnic table. Again, good timing.

Here’s the 8-mile path I took:

I pulled up onto the beach right before hitting the weird currents, and snapped a photo of the sign warning people of the strong currents!

Now, AMA greeted me and explained that the restaurant was actually part of a private, gated yacht club, and a nice man let her in once she explained why she was there. All good, right? Not exactly. I then asked her, “how will we get back in when we return with my car to pick up my kayak?” Welp, that was the golden question neither of us had the answer to. I assumed everything would be fine and another nice person would let us back in, so I went ahead and locked my kayak to a picnic pavilion. I considered carrying my kayak outside of the gated area, but it was about a half mile walk – way too far to drag a kayak!

As we got in the car and started heading out, we stopped and asked a maintenance worker if he could let us back in when we returned “in about 20 minutes.” He agreed to stay a few minutes past the end of his shift to let us back in. Perfect.

Aaaannnd not perfect. We exited the yacht club, I opened google maps, and realized Still Pond Station (where my car was still parked), was 25 minutes away! It was almost 8:30 p.m. and we wouldn’t even be back until almost 9:30! We decided to press on, thinking “oh we’ll figure this out somehow.”

AMA drove me back to my car and followed me back to the yacht club. The gate was locked without a soul around. I called to see if they had any after-hours phone number, but couldn’t get ahold of anyone. I really didn’t want to leave my kayak there overnight because it would mess my plans up for a morning paddle. I seriously considered trying to carry it the half mile. We decided to walk around, in hopes of finding help. LUCKILY a nice man that was living on his boat was throwing something away in a dumpster near the front gate. I ran over to him and explained our situation. He agreed to grab his gate key and let us in. Thank goodness! I offered him money but he refused. We drove down to my kayak, got it loaded, and headed back to Chestertown.

By the time we got to Chestertown it was just after 10 p.m., we were hungry, and everything was closed for dinner. We ended up getting salads and snacks from Royal Farms and heading back to the house. After dinner and a shower, I slept so well that night!