Spring Paddling destinations - East Coast USA

Help us plan our Spring vacation!

What would be a good, warm, paddling destination for a late March vacation? We’d greatly prefer somewhere within, say, an 8 hour drive of Philadelphia. (We don’t live there but can get north of there on a Friday night after work). Slightly longer is probably ok, any more than that we’d want to add a second travel day and that eats up more vacation time.

We want quiet water, slow rivers are often the best. We’ve been to Chincoteague in April, loved it, might even go back there. My favoritest ever spot was from that trip on the Pokemoke River paddling amongst the cypress knees. We also enjoyed meandering through the tall grass tidal areas around Chincoteague. (And yes, we also love Lake Umbagog but not in March!)

You will have to look south. North ice out on flatwater is not till April ( the end of April here). And if you could find open water a drysuit is highly recommended. Some lazy rivers like the Saco might open but the water will be about 36 degrees. I live near that river and it used to tempt me except that that recent early April temps sometimes dive below zero.

Make a stop at Kiptopeke SP on DelMarVa? Huge mix of terrain from inlet surf to salt marsh type paddling. I always enjoy the area.

See you on the water,
Marshall
The River Connection, Inc.
9 W. Market St.
Hyde Park, NY. 12538
845-229-0595 main
845-242-4731 mobile
Main: [www.the-river-connection.com]
Store: [www.the-river-connection.us]
Facebook: [fb.me/theriverconnection]
Instagram: Instagram.com/marshall.seddon

Dismal swamp in virginia is a nice spot to kayak still water to and has lots of old old cypress trees with cypress roots arching up out water that u can paddle under

I’m looking Kiptopeke on google maps, that’s only a short drive from Chincoteague, but I’m not seeing where to paddle, unless you’re on the eastern side, say Magothy bay or Mockhorn Wildlife areas, is that what you mean?

How do you get into Dismal Swamp? Just put in one of the “ditches” and paddle to the middle?

What about the Knoxville TN area? From the maps it looks like it is surrounded by water with lots of nooks to explore.

To access the dismal swamp you go down highway 17 in chesapeake almost to va/nc border and put in at the dismal swamp canal then take a right into feeder ditch to access lake Drummond in dismal swamp.its on the paddl ill ng location map

The free county launch is on a small creek that’s tidally sensitive on the way to Wise Point but you can park overnight there free.