October 2, 2005

Leesylvania to Smallwood

I've been revisiting Leesylvania a lot lately. It started a few weeks ago with Jenny, Greg and Andy exploring the creeks nearby, followed by a Leesylvania to Mason Neck and back trip with Patty. Today Joan and I headed out in another direction to cross over to General Smallwood State Park.

I got to the launch late. REAL late. When Joan called me at 9:00 to tell me she missed the turn and would be a few minutes late she actually woke me up! So about 10:30 we finally pushed away from Leesylvania and started navigating toward the southern tip of Indian Head.

I noticed there seemed to be more bass boats than usual for this late in the season, but it didn't dawn on me that there might be a reason.

The day was clear, blue and only the slightest of breezes. Crossing open water this flat is actually a bit boring, but we occupied our time with conversation. We crossed the nearly 3 miles of open water in short order and with it still being too early for lunch, Joan and I paddled on up Mattawoman creek.

The creek was swarming with boats buzzing in and out of the creek, with most of them bass boats running flat out wide open. We stayed along shore but often paddled out a bit to avoid fishing lines. The water was a bit tannic, but other than that it was crystal clear and I paddled along looking in the water at the fish darting by.

Mattawoman has a healthy supply of lettuce grass growing in fairly deep water. It is one of the few creeks nearby that isn't choked full of hydrilla. The clear water allowed me to see an occasional bass swim by and I couldn't help think to myself 'you missed one' to the fishermen.

We rounded the corner where the government facility ended and there was a small community park. We hauled out at the boat ramp for lunch, making note that the ramp itself was broken off at the end. I'm not sure how the boats launched from the 3 trailers in the parking lot.

We had lunch in the gazebo before starting our trek back. As we headed out the boats seemed to start heading out too. A few did rocket in to the creek though. The crossing seemed even longer back to Leesylvania although there was a little bit of boat wake to contend with. There wasn't enough to make it very interesting and boats seemed to only want to cross in front of us rather than behind us where we could have gotten a bit of ride from the wake.

As we neared Leesylvania it finally clicked about all the boats. An announcer was calling out fish weights as the boats came back to the dock. We rounded the point and headed in to Powells creek and back to the launch.

It was good to see some of the area surrounding Leesylvania again. I still need to revisit the area south of the park, an area somewhat boring from what I remember down to the power plant. Maybe the weather will continue to be nice for a few more weeks.