After the 16 miles in the upper bay, I decided to finish out the last remaining stretch in Delaware the following day! My dad was again willing to come along for the adventure and drive my car to pick me up at the finish line. I couldn’t have done these final stretches without him.

After dropping Patrick off at the bus stop, my dad and I headed up to South Bowers Beach. The tide was still favorable for paddling northward, but I knew the wind was supposed to be a bit breezier than the day before. Brian had recently introduced me to the Fish Weather app, which has really detailed hourly wind forecasts. Based on what the app said, the wind was forecasted to be NE, about 8 mph, and that’s exactly what is was when I launched.

I had planned to hug the coast, but the first stretch would have been in a NW direction and that would mean the wind would be coming at me perpendicularly, which I hate. So instead, I headed due north, straight for the southernmost house of Kitts Hummock. Because the wind made the first 3 miles a little tricky, I didn’t take any photos.

My dad had planned to stop at the tiny village of Kitts Hummock to watch me paddle by, but I didn’t see him anywhere on the beach. I finally got to a spot where I could check my phone and I saw he had texted me 20 minutes prior, wondering where I was. I guess he was expecting me to arrive sooner, based on my super speedy rate from the day before! I replied, and shortly after, I saw him walk out on the beach. After a quick “are you okay” – “yes, I’m fine” conversation, I waved and paddled on.

There wasn’t a ton of scenery along this stretch, except the peaceful, undeveloped shoreline. But since I was so close to Dover AFB, there was plenty of aircraft to see! I wish I had been able to take some photos closer to Bowers Beach when they were REALLY low flying over me!

I arrived at Pickering Beach another 45 minutes later, where my dad also planned to stop and wave. As I approached the tiny beach village, I tried to see if I could spot him in the distance. He’s 6’5″ so I thought he’d be easy to spot. I knew he was wearing a light-colored hat and a darker shirt and thought the tiny speck on the horizon was him. And then I thought to myself, or maybe that’s an eagle sitting on a white post? And then I literally laughed out loud at the “is that my dad, or an eagle?” train of thought!

Turns out, it WAS may dad! Again, after a quick “are you okay?” conversation, I continued north. It was also around this point that the wind started to die out. EXACTLY what the fish weather app had predicted – yay!

Somewhere between Pickering Beach and Port Mahon, which was completely undeveloped and a rugged shoreline, I spotted a few dump trucks flying down the coast! They weren’t directly on the beach, but just behind a narrow section of phragmites grass. I honestly thought this was all wild marshland, but clearly there was some kind of road that they were driving on, although I have no idea where they were going or what they were doing there. I guess it’s possible they were doing some maintenance on impoundments? I’m pretty sure that area is part of the Little Creek Wildlife Area.

As I approached Port Mahon, I was reminded of how sketchy this area can be. I have visited in the past by land, and there were questionable characters just sitting in their cars and I just felt uneasy. So needless to say, I was glad my dad was picking me up at the boat ramp, rather than me needing to bike back to the beginning or catch an Uber or something!

Once I was about to go under the fishing pier, two guys on the pier were waving. “Hey Laura!”

Huh? Oh right, my dad was probably on the pier not long ago, proudly explaining who I was and what I was doing.

“Your dad just texted you! He’s heading down to the boat ramp!”

Haha, I know. I got that text already. That’s my dad though; very thorough!

Then I spotted my car, driving away from the boat ramp towards me. I waved, my dad saw me, and turned around to head back to the ramp. I was only a half mile away from the ramp, but since the road runs adjacent to the shoreline, he drove at about 3.5 mph just to stay even with me for the last half mile. It made me laugh! It’s nice to know that no matter how old I get (gonna be 40 in a month!), my dad is still willing to go out of his way to make sure I’m safe. And I think he got a kick out of hopping from place to place to follow my journey today! And I know my mom was smiling down on us the whole day 🙂

As I loaded up my kayak on my car, the feeling of accomplishment was pretty spectacular – Delaware is COMPLETE! I now only have 15 miles left of my entire goal. I can’t believe this journey is almost over, having started 11 YEARS ago! I have about 10 miles left up in Cecil County, and 5 miles left around Kent Island.

We celebrated my accomplishment with a pizza at Frederica Pizza House on the way home.

Here’s the map of my final leg in Delaware: