Kayak Virginia Beach

Paddle to Elizabeth City - Pasquotank River

Well I originally had other plans for today, but in doing the routing it just came out to be to long of a trip with the conditions forecast for today. My family was heading down to Elizabeth City, so I decided to paddle a section of the Pasquotank River. The weather today was great, temps in the mid to upper 70s with a fairly strong winds out of the Southwest.

Considering the winds today, I would have rather gone South to North, but being that I (or the KAYAKVB support team) had never been to the Shipyard Road launch site I decided to kayak from North to South. The local guy at the launch confirmed that fact, along with telling Nick about Alligators in the river. The gator story made Nick very leery of the water.

The river itself is about a quarter mile wide at this point lined with a mix of cypress, and various deciduous tress. For the most part the North side of the river is pretty much undeveloped, while the South side has a occasional development. There was very little traffic on the river today, but I bet that is a different story on a hot July day.

After about 4 miles there are a couple of bailout points, the first being a creek that leads to the North Carolina Game department Ramp on NC-343, or Lambs Landing a commercial marina, that may or may not charge you to haul your kayak out there. Continuing on, there is a railroad bridge that was pretty interesting, but it does cause some hinderance to passage, on the North side there is no clearance except at the middle between the trestle and the turntable, or you could use the main channel, but it is a pretty tight squeeze and I would not want to share it with any powerboat traffic. On the South side there is one section of the bridge with out cross bracing that looks passable.

The next couple of miles were pretty much a battle against the winds that were gusting to 23 MPH, that was directly out of the South as got to the wide part of the river that runs North and South. I made it to some protection from the wind at Causeway Park. Hugging the shore made the remainder of the trip easier, but use caution in this area because of the submerged barges in the area.

Passing under the drawbridges, I saw a lot more activity then I have in the past, pretty much all the docks were occupied. After a short paddle along the Elizabeth City waterfront I ended up at Dog Corner Park, with the KAYAKVB support team waiting for me.