The weekend was crazy. I got an early start and tried to catch the low tide on Friday, Sept 3. I nearly missed it, but I managed to record one, short video before the tide water overtook the mud in which I was playing. That was the end of mudding for the first day. I got cleaned up, packed up my gear, and paddled about 2.5 miles to a campsite where I planned to spend the night.
In the morning of the second day, the tide was coming in, so I paddled up river about 4 miles to harvest wild grapes from a muscadine grape vine that I had discovered on the river some years back. I didn’t get many grapes, but they were very sweet. I paddled back to the campsite and did a little exploring along the way. I got back to my campsite in time to make some lunch.
After lunch, I packed up my camping gear and headed back out on the river to return to my mud hole. I arrived at my mud hole about an hour before low tide, so I had time to goof off and get everything ready; including the mud hole that I had left in disarray the day before. The first video I recorded went as well as could be expected. I wrapped up that video and got cleaned up in preparation for a second video. However, before I could get into the mud, I heard a couple of boats coming up the creek. They cut their motors very close to me, and I could hear them talking. I returned to where I stow my gear near the creek and saw that they had parked their boats immediately across the creek from where I clean up.
I had no idea how long they were going to stay, but it didn’t look like they were planning to move on, so I didn’t dare get muddy, again. While I waited for them to leave, the tide started coming back in. The incoming tide carried the boats and their people up stream far enough that I was able to slip out onto the creek without giving away my hiding place.
So, my mudding was cut short two days in a row, but I had a good time, and I paddled at total of 18.5 miles (about 31 km). It was nice to get out and spend a couple days in the wilderness.