On September 6 I made a paddle trip to Masonboro Island south of Wilmington, NC, to explore and find a suitable site for hopefully many return kayak camping trips. I launched from Trails End Park about 8 a.m. on Saturday morning. The lot was completely packed – every parking space was full, mostly with pickup trucks pulling motor boat trailers. More traffic was backed up circling the lot in line to unload or load boats at the ramp. I finally had to squeeze my Jeep into a space between two trucks that had about an inch to spare on both sides.
Besides my boat and all my paddling gear, I was carrying a large, heavy load of water in my deck bag. It was a tiring job to hand carry my equipment across the big parking lot to the kayak launch dock. I could have used my wheeled kayak cart, which was in the Jeep, but I did not want to go to the bother of lashing it to the boat with multiple straps.
The conditions were nice. I had checked the weather and tide the night before, and put into the Intracoastal Waterway at high tide with no tidal current, no wind, no natural waves, and sunny sky with warm air that was just pleasant but not too hot.
I first paddled to the south, to check the land behind a couple of beaches I had seen the week before.
The first half of the trip was a little rougher than I expected. I was passed closely by many large, fast boats. A few boats politely throttled down to reduce their wake hitting me, which I appreciated. But the majority of the boats did not afford me that courtesy, leaving me bobbing and rolling in their heavy waves. Then, when I pulled up to the several beaches to explore, I had to situate my boat parallel to the shore right at the sand, so my feet could touch the bottom on both sides of the boat, and I could step out while keeping my balance. That orientation was not good. The boat wake waves hit me broadside, causing my kayak to roll nearly 90 degrees. And, the boat hull scraped the dirt bottom, pushing the boat even further into a roll. I had to quickly develop a new technique to exit the boat, using my paddle on the water side as a crutch.
The land behind each of the beaches as too low and wet on which to camp. At a few places, I walked through the swampy areas to the woods behind, and found brush too thick with no open space. So, I launched again and paddled north up the ICW to some larger beaches I had seen at home on Google Earth.
I turned east into a broad channel entering the sea grass beds of the estuary. From there a little to the south I found a half-moon bay on the ICW side of Masonboro Island, facing into the estuary. No boat wakes and no waves. The land behind the bay sloped up into a nice dune, safely above high tide. On the other side of the dune was a steep bank, protecting the site from any action on the ICW. The dune was partially covered with several kinds of salt grass, which kept the ground firm enough to hold a tent stake. Then, between several bushes for wind protection, there was a broad flat place, about the size of a couple tents. Success!
The only thing this site lacked was a couple of tall, overhead trees to provide shade. After I camp here a few times, I will come back to explore further north for some shaded sites.
I marked the location with a Waypoint on my GPS. After admiring the view in several directions, I took a short cut angling across the ICW back to the marina on the mainland, and then south along the shore to the put-in / take-out dock.
By now, the air had gotten hot. I had another long, sweaty, hard job hauling my gear across the big parking lot. When I was ready to leave, the lot was in gridlock, I had to wait 25 minutes for the traffic to move enough for me to head out homeward. Note to self: never come back here on a Saturday morning.
