07/25/2007

Canoeing is Like a ‘Day in Paradise’
By Don Klein

Ron Pilling

They call themselves "paddlers" and they love the outdoors. They can spend hours exploring waterways, identifying birds, admiring the variety of trees and animal life and never get tired of it. Their form of transportation is the canoe or a kayak.

The starting point is usually at the Snow Hill drawbridge along the shore of the Pocomoke River, which is an Indian word for "black waters."  Ron Pilling knows all about it. "I've been paddling since I was a kid," he said. He started during his Boy Scout days in Baltimore.

"I built my own canoe 35 years ago and have built and restored many since then," he added. Mr. Pilling is one of the senior employees at the 24 year-old Pocomoke River Canoe Company, located on Washington Avenue in Snow Hill.

This is the busy time of the year for the canoe rental business. Patrons arrive every day and for a fee of $45 they get a canoe, paddles and vests and are driven in one of two 15-passenger vans with two trailers with a capacity of 15 boats each, to Porter's Crossing, some five and a half miles up river. At the put-in point the waterway is hardly 20 yards wide. From there the paddlers are on their own heading back to where they started in Snow Hill.

They maneuver at their leisure through thick bogs of bald cypress trees and around vast beds of spatterdock, a water lily-like plant. Along the way they will witness basking turtles on logs, great blue herons fishing in the shallows and long-legged egrets doing whatever egrets do. The travelers may even stop to eat a picnic lunch they brought with them.

For those who like to fish, there is the promise of lots of activity. Bass, perch, bluegill and the alligator gar, the river's signature fish, are in abundance. The trip usually takes two and a half to three hours, depending on the boaters interests along the way.

"Everybody comes back happy," Mr. Pilling claimed. "It is a spectacular location. Flat water with no rapids."  The company is open seven days a week from May 15 to October 31 and on weekends only between April 1 and May 15 as well as between November 1 to New Years Eve. They is no boating between January and March.

But in warm weather there are other, longer trips than Porter's Crossing. For example, once paddlers arrive at the Snow Hill dock they can get off, stretch their legs, then continue on to Shad's Landing. This could take five hours more and Mr. Pilling or one of his fellow employees will drive up in one of the vans and bring the travelers back.  There's an added charge of $5 for this extension of the day's trip.

"It's a back-breaking job on summer weekends when lots of people head our way to do some canoeing," he said. There are other destinations as well, such as Nassawango Creek and the E.A. Vaughn Wildlife Preserve, rich with waterfowl and a salt marsh with dozens of nursery species.

The Pocomoke River Canoe Company also sells boats, kayaks, paddles, floatation vests, dry bags and at the end of the year the staff sells the entire fleet of 22 canoes and 18 kayaks. "We then buy a new fleet every year to replace them," Mr. Pilling explained.

A recent trend among the older paddlers, those in the 50 to 60 age group, is the preference for kayaks. Modern kayaks, like the ones at the canoe company, have broader beams making them more stable than the traditional kayaks or canoes. "They never capsize," he said.

The company brochure invites patrons to "accept the challenge of the wind and the tide on the open reaches of the river near the 300-year old village of Snow Hill. You'll be glad you came to...our Pocomoke River." Then it adds, "A day on the Pocomoke River is a day in paradise."

Mr. Pilling, who grew up in Baltimore and is retired from the computer business, now lives in Bishopville and tries to work only three days a week in semi-retirement. "It's a pretty good job. It's different from lying on the beach all day."

A good aspect of river canoeing is that there are no scheduled trips. People can go whenever it is convenient for them. "Once they arrive here," Mr. Pilling assured, "we can put them in boats within 10 minutes" and leave the beach for tomorrow.