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Could not have asked for better conditions for the Moonrise Tour on July 31st! Light winds to start died out to glassy, calm waters as the sun began to set. The egrets and herons on Point of Cedars Island were silhouetted by the gorgeous sunset. We relaxed listening to the birds getting settled in for the night as the beautiful orange Blue Moon rose above the horizon and then enjoyed a peaceful paddle back to Coastal Kayak's beach. I'd like to order another one exactly the same for next month! - Neil Baker

Assateague may be a barrier island, but it’s not a barrier to kayaking fun! Katie and I lead a full tour of fun-loving paddlers on a day that could not have been better. Sun, comfortable temperatures in the 70s, and every Assateague kayaker’s dream: bands of wild ponies grazing on the marsh. There was a strong north wind, but most of the time it was behind us. The few times when we had to turn into it, Katie did a great job of guiding us through channels that gave great protection from the brunt of it. We saw our first band of ponies within minutes of launching and headed right for it. The second band appeared about half way through the tour. Overseeing them was an American bald eagle, perched in a tree. Unfortunately, the

In early February I had the opportunity to paddle through Topock Gorge on the Colorado River just north of Lake Havasu City, Arizona. The Colorado in this area is crystal clear Caribbean blue, deep, and cold. It still seems wild at this point, although all of the pipelines and gauges and pumps at the launch site near I-40 told me a different story. Soon though, all of the highway noises vanished and the heavy silence of the desert was all I could hear. The thing about paddling in the desert that I don't think I'll ever get over is the shock of that much liquid flowing through the heart of so much arid land. The color of the cliffs and rocks is amazing and changes as abruptly as the weather in Delaware. Some of the

The Perfect PFD So you got some money for Christmas and you want to put it towards your paddling habit. How best to spend it? Of course your best option is to use it on professional paddling instruction from Coastal Kayak's ACA certified kayak and SUP instructors. The second best option is to invest in a comfortable PFD (personal flotation device, AKA lifejacket) that you will actually wear. Sad Fact: Drowning is the single biggest cause of death in recreational boating accidents. Over 80% of drowning victims were NOT wearing life jackets when found. Lame Excuses for NOT Wearing a Lifejacket: "This water is so shallow. I could walk across this bay." (But if you are lying unconscious in the water, it only needs to be 6 inches deep to be over your nose!) "I

This is my first summer with CK, and it’s been one of the best.  I’ve been privileged enough to learn the business under Mitch and Jen this summer while doing my Internship for West Virginia University (aka Coastal Kayak’s first intern). I’ve gotten to work alongside some of the best and learn all sides of the job.  I was able to put together a training manual of all the birds, critters, plants and history of all the tours, which is something they have wanted for awhile. Coastal Kayak is definitely a place where you should bring your families when you visit the beach, and even go on one of their tours.  You won’t regret it!   This past Saturday, after the storms rolled through Neil and I had a great family of paddlers, and we

Hello my Coastal Kayak friends! It's so great to be back this summer for my fifth year! I'm so happy the weather is finally warm. Winter was long but I did get to enjoy a bit of traveling with Salisbury University, while I took a photography class abroad, exploring London and Paris. While I enjoyed every minute of it some of my favorite memories would include traveling to Wiltshire, an English countryside village home to Lacock Abbey (a country house that looks more like a medieval castle), and also, re-creating the Abbey Road album cover, as I channeled Paul McCartney. While in Paris, I indulged in shopping at Galleries Lafayette, many museums and french cuisine; I love escargot.         June is always a great time for eco tours! The bald eagles are

  I’ve got some early season kayak tour pictures from last weekend. Glorious weather both Saturday and Sunday, and small groups we were able to get to see some nice sights. Saturday at Cypress Tour the water was high (good thing) and we were able to get back to Raccoon Pond and watch a doe browsing on wetland plants (arrow arum, I believe). We also saw quite a few large red bellied cooters, and the prothonotary warblers were just-a-singin’-away. Sunday we chased down the new eagle’s nest on our Little Assawoman Back Bay Tour. We saw two adults and one immature, though the nest itself is hard to see. We also saw plenty of osprey soaring and chirping, and a cow-nosed ray, a rare sight in the Little Bay, which is a long way from

Just checking in from Assateague. I did 2 tours down there last weekend. The weather could not have been more pleasant and the water was clear-as-a-bell, despite heavy rains the day before. We saw a big cow-nose ray, seeding eel-grass, some sponges, and little blue crabs scurrying about the shallows near Egging Island. On Sunday, the ponies were right at water’s edge, good for photo-ops!

Growing Degree Days 36.4; ocean temperature, 43 degrees; forsythias, just started blooming; those are plain COLD facts. Worse, Carly got a SUP for Christmas and has not had it in the water, until today!   Despite being pretty stiff, Carly and I headed out onto the Assawoman Canal by Jefferson Bridge Road. This is a good spot early in the year, sheltered and relatively warm. Certainly it’s a good spot to get the cobb-webs off.   We headed south, with the current and took a cut into Jefferson Creek. From there, it winds a little, broadens a lot, and if you’re careful about some shallows (the water is clear now, so on a SUP you can really see bottom well), you come into the heart of what I call Jefferson Bay. We had the wind

Back in the old days, teachers’ first assignment for their students was to have them write “What I Did Last Summer.”  Summers for me since 2003 have been filled with guiding tours, teaching sailing and kayaking, and being a general beach bum at Coastal Kayak. Now, Jen and Mitch want me to share “What I Did This Winter.”  Being older (and wiser) than fellow guide Tim Bennett, I didn’t launch my kayak in an area that required dodging ice floes and icebergs.  I know what happened to RMS Titanic. Instead, my wife and I loaded kayaks, bicycles, fishing rods, the Harley and other assorted toys into our fifth-wheel toy hauler and headed to snow-free Florida for a couple of months. The highlights:  kayaking with dolphin and alligators, bicycling the 20-mile roundtrip Legacy Trail between Sarasota