Are you thinking lakes or rivers? The Southeast is a massive area with plenty of both.
Mosquitos are hit and miss. Rivers and lakes, in my experience, are not bad. Swamps can be horrific at times.
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Lakes OR rivers. Ideally, as few rapids as possible, and maybe a loop or near loop. OK, I’ll eliminate swamps 
Swamps are beautiful and if there has been enough rain, water flow can keep the mosquitoes to a minimum.
Check out Lake Fontana, NC if you like mountains or Lake Hartwell, SC . Hartwell is in a hilly area. There are several state parks along it.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Lake Jocassee, SC. One of the most beautiful lakes around with a nice campground. It is very popular and if you want to stay there, it’s time to make reservations.
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This is a terrific thread … thanks all for sharing your accomplishments and plans. It makes spring seem closer as I look out at the tundra!
Days are getting longer. Finish your prep.
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48 days this year, just shy of 600 miles. High points were camping trips - Michigan’s Pine River, circumnavigating Drummond Island, and especially Ontario’s North Channel.
Drummond trip report
North Channel trip report
Plan two trips for next year: Georgian Bay’s McGregor Bay and Baie Fine, Killarney Provincial Park and Phillip Edward Island in French River Provincial Park.
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Rufi Paddle Year 2022
2022 Paddle Spots: Goose Creek, Bear Island, Merchants Millpond, Buffalo City, Wiggin’s Millpond , Dudley Island, Contentnea Creek, Dismal Swamp Canal, Philpott Lake, Cherry Branch Ferry, Black River/Three Sisters, Fontana Lake, Blount’s Creek, Shackleford Banks and Bogue Sound. All spots are in the state of NC.
Due to higher gas prices, we stayed closer to home, which is eastern NC. Only did three trips, that took more than one tank of gas.
2023 Paddle year starts later today.
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It was Maine last year. This year it will be Wyoming again. Finished Qruisers Petrel Play last spring.
Other distractions and “Author Itius” , my traveling partner, is not helping my mileage or woodworking. But I’m making progress at the farm.
This is East Bay on the Schoodic peninsula, one of our Maine campsites.
A friend logged 1030 miles in '22. He considers that a low year.
Here’s what I shared on my local paddling club forum: My paddling log for 2022 indicates 91 times on water- a benefit of being retired now. I knocked off a couple of new states- Delaware, New Jersey but overall scaled down the difficulty of my paddling a bit. I’d like to express thanks to all who came out and paddled or shuttled with me in 2022. Lots of great times, 623 miles paddled for an average of 6.85 miles paddled per day.
Arkansas- Mulberry wolfpen to turners bend 1x, Buffalo River boxley to highway 14 (4 days)
Delaware- Trussum Pond 1x, Trap Pond 1x
Florida- buck creek mangroves 1x
Indiana- Blue River 1x
Kansas- Arkansas River 1x
Kentucky- limestone mine paddling 1x (slade ky)
Maryland Pitts Creek 1x, Jane’s Island Salt Marshes 5x (Chesapeake bay)
Missouri NF of the White River 4x, Jacks Fork 2x, Red Mill Pond (Mingo NWR) 1x, Loudre River 1x
New Jersey- Wading River 3x
North Carolina: Toe 1x, Frenchbroad 2x
Oahu Hawaii- canal, flat island, Mokes, Kaneohe Sandbar 4x
Tennessee- Pigeon 1x, lower Noli 1x
Utah- Greenriver 5 days
Virginia- First Landing Chesapeake Bay 1x
West Virginia- Top Gauley-Cherry Combo2x, Cherry river 1x, Greenbrier 6x, down Elk 1x, New River: stonecliff to cunard 1x, Glade to Grandview Sandbar 24x, Cunard to Fayette Station 1x, Summersville Lake 1x, Potomac- NF of S. Branch Hopeville canyon 2x, NF. Potomac Barnum to Bloomington 1x, Gauley- crupperneck bend 1x, Gauley from near Donaldson 1x ,Bluestone river 3x, Birch River 1x, Lower Williams River 1x, lake stephens 1x
My plans for 2023, In. Jan I have jury duty but in Feb. I am looking to do some paddling in Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. March I may drive up to Canoecopia in Wisconsin, The rest of March and all of April I plan to chase water in wv. I would really like to get on the upper shavers fork and part of loup creek for personal first descents in wv. I want to explore shades of death creek as well (sounds worse than it is).
I am going to meet my brother in May for overnight ducky trips on the Chama and Rio Grande in NM and then stay west and knock off Nevada, Montana and North Dakota in June and July. I’m always up for a bit of Idaho or Colorado as well
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Drop me a PM if you are in the MS Gulf Coast/New Orleans/Mobile region in mid Feb for some long boat remote marsh or near shore paddles.
sounds like a plan kayakhank, my longest boat is a 14’ rec boat (pakayak). in terms of planning ahead, where do you like to go? miles a day? speed? remote marsh sounds good but I’m not into big open water crossings to get there
We will stay along the coast or in rivers/estuaries - no big open water crossings required.
Depending on your physical size, I can get you a loaner 14’ or 17’sea kayak. Lots of paddling options depending on the weather and rains. Short for me is an hour or so covering 2.5 - 5 miles, or a 3 - 5 hours pushing up to 14ish miles. Some of my favorite local paddles are some of the shorter ones that other skilled paddlers don’t seem interested in paddling beccause they are not long enough. Some have sand beaches and some have no easy break points. For most of my river paddles, I use a Dagger Stratos 14.5L, that is my shorty kayak!
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So something like a dagger stratos would be a step up in terms of speed and design over anything I have. Many times I just make do on 'flatwater" with my ww pyranha 12r. I use it like a cross over boat or one boat to go anywhere. For this particular trip I am thinking my pakayak because I want to sleep in the rv and the rv rack is vertical on the rear of it (think short ww kayaks standing up on end). I just tend to be a bit slow and like to keep the distances short when with flatwater paddlers. Overall, I like this idea. You could teach me about long boats and about the most useful thing I could do is pick up the check for dinner. My rolling ability isn’t very good right now. I haven’t hit the pool sessions and if I don’t practice regularly I can’t roll when I need it. My artificial hips need regular workouts to maintain the motion. The pakayak is not set up to roll.
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I’ll shoot you a pm to firm things up.
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I really don’t know if I’ll get much opportunity to be in the water in 2023.
I’d really like to go, but our new baby will be about 6 months old when the season starts here, and still only about 10 months when the season stops again next fall. I normally kayak with my spouse, so I don’t know if we’ll go at all with our baby that young.
Good thread! The activity of some here is amazing!
I only got out a few times, as usual, but I did enjoy my 2 trips to the (TX Gulf) coast.
More exciting is 2023 and beyond. 2023 will be my last full year of work so I’m hoping to get out more often and for longer once retirement arrives. Also, my daughter just moved up to Maine, near the coast, so I’ll be back here to pick brains in the spring!
Happy 2023 all!
Lots of day trips in and around Vancouver, BC on Indian Arm and Pitt Lake, 5 days around around Galiano Island and 13 days through the Discovery Islands. Here’s a short video of our last day of 2022 on December 31, “Paddlin’ for a Thousand”.
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Nowhere near enough saltwater paddling, but I did paddle quite a bit inland. There’s a good sized lake about a mile from our house that we do a lot of paddling on, but it got hit with blue-green algae in August, so we needed to find another place for a quick local paddle until about October. Annual trip to Maine got rained out, and we came home early.
But, I did finally get my new canoe! With a double bladed paddle I can keep up with my better half in either of her sea kayaks. And she thought she’d have to stop and wait for me…hee hee hee!!
This year needs lots more saltwater and a lot of canoe!
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Wayne_Smith, what double bladed paddle did you choose?