However, trying to paddle to Masonboro Island may also frustrate you because the standard advice for paddling to Masonboro Island is to use the Trail's End put-in and travel to the north end of the island. However, this advice comes with a huge caveat: time your visit at high tide.
Now if you're like me -- that is, you're just beginning to understand and interpret the impact of tides on paddle trips -- then that advice is useless. Do you put in at high tide? An hour or so before? Once you paddle over at high tide, how long do you have on the island before you're faced with a paddle back over a low tide?
The reason for the advice is, well, reasonable. The sound side of Masonboro Island tends to mudflats and salt marsh at low tide. If you don't time your trip just right, then you're hauling your boat through the mud. When that happens the good times are over.You likely recall as I do that high tide comes around twice a day. Soooooo, if you paddle over at, say, 9:30 in the morning, do you have to wait to paddle back at 9:30 at night? Uh-oh....we're in trouble.....I'm not paddling at night....
Because I had visited Wilmington twice before and been thwarted both times by tides and wind conditions, I was looking for a different way to paddle to Masonboro Island. It's tough for personal time, good weather, and well-time tides to come together at the same time.
So, I bailed on the Trail's End route and used instead a route to the southern end of Masonboro Island (marked by the red arrow in the picture above) using the Snow's Cut boat ramp (not on this signboard). If you study the picture, you'll also see an indicator for the Trail's End put-in as well as the marshy patches you've got to paddle through if you opt to paddle to the north end of Masonboro Island.
Vital Statistics: If you put in at the Snow's Cut boat ramp, Masonboro Island is about two miles one-way (I think), maybe a touch less, via the Intracoastal Waterway. Once you put in, you'll want to go paddle north just a bit, then hug the mainland side of the channel to dodge the large, very fast boats creating lots of rollers to ride as well as any tidal action that might sort-kinda pull you out through Carolina Beach Inlet into the Atlantic Ocean. (People do paddle around Masonboro Island the entire 18 miles. I'm not one of them.)
Then, when you are even, more or less, with the southern tip of the island, turn right, cross the Intracoastal and then ride the small breakers to beach your craft. You can then get out want enjoy the island without worrying about a dropping tide. (DO NOT enter Snow's Cut. More on that in an upcoming post.)
One the day I visited, the grey trout were biting and the fishermen were driving like the Joey Chitwood Hell Drivers through the parking area to get to the ramps to launch their boats to get to the fishin'. But the good news is that the boat ramp has three ramps, and the right-most ramp is more narrow than the other two, so smaller boats tend to put in there.
Restrooms: Yes! Portajohns, possibly seasonally provided. Still, some facility is better than none.
What Will You See? Great views of the water front of Carolina Beach blending to outer Wilmington, lots and lots of pelicans, lots of boats, and then a really fine sandy point to land and walk on a near-pristine beach.
I was particularly taken with watching the pelicans dive. I'd seen them in action before, of course, but this time I saw them close and personal. As they dive, their short little legs wobble as if they're trying to prevent the dive they just initiated. Pelicans have indeed devised a tough way to feed themselves. Seeing them up close also allowed me to see the incredible curvature of their bills as well as watch the prey go down the hatch. Their neck skin is thin indeed.
Also, I found it thrilling to look to the horizon as I paddled by Carolina Beach Inlet (right). At near water-level view, the ocean appears to bubble as the breakers foam and surge. Pretty neat!
Anything Special To Be Aware Of? Yes...besides sunburn, you'll need to watch for the boaters. The boaters in the larger, faster boats seem, on average to have little regard for the "No Wake" signs. Even homeowners have posted placards asking for "no wake." Those pleas don't seem to cut much ice with these guys, many of whom look like Papa Hemingway as they lean into the breeze to get to the fishin'. (Old Man and the Sea, anyone?) The most considerate boater of all was a guy in huge catamaran, so high off the water that for a moment I thought I could paddle paddle underneath him (not that I would). He eased through that part of the channel and left little to no wake to ride.
Do you need a kayak with rudders for this trip? Maybe so. My boat (a 14 footer) has a specially shaped hull that compensates for the lack of a true rudder/skeg combo, so I didn't miss the stability. If your boat is short (say 11 feet), you might not want to try this trip unless you're really comfy in your boat.
Finally: Time on the Water. Depends on your strength and the current in the Intracoastal. On the outbound trip I felt like a world-class Olympian due to the current, and on the return, not so much. I was combating the outbound current and some fatigue. That said, allow at least three hours for the trip.
What I've Read (But Not Tested) About Tides: I understand that the first hour a tide begins to change, it does so slowly. It picks up speed as it approaches hours 3 and 4 in the 6-hour cycle. Then it slows again as either high tide or ebb tide is reached. So, I infer that if high tide is at 9:30 am and I want to use the Trail's End put-in, then I should be paddling by 8 or so to be able to go over (still on the high tide) and come back two hours later (or so) without risking the mudflats. (The route is thought to require 20 - 40 minutes, depending on your paddle speed.) YMMV.
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