Swordwhale Walking: illustration, webcomic, stories, photojourneys, videos
  • launch here
  • art & stories
    • black horses
    • Sea Ponies of Chincoteague
    • Just Animals
    • playing with water
    • Tradigital illustration
    • environmental education >
      • Christmas Magic Mural 2020
      • animal alphabet and counting murals
      • Assateague ponies
      • the salamander room
      • more touch room ocean
      • more: touch room forest
      • wetland
      • wetland art
      • greenleaf
      • reptile week murals: Nixon Park
    • just animals: photography
    • Tales of the E.L.F. >
      • That Darn Elf, a musing or two
      • cast and crew
      • I dreamed of black horses
      • fanfiction: If Wishes Were Elves...
      • Skyfire
      • Leyover and Bardic Circle
      • Following Raven
      • The Merrow's Cap >
        • Merrows Cap credits
      • Manannan's Horses
      • Fins
      • fandom >
        • Radagast's Rabbit Ride
        • the Lone Ranger >
          • LOLs and Trolls
          • but wait, there's Moore, and Silverheels
          • Hi Yo Silver
        • black panthers and night furies
        • tales of Middle Earth >
          • Mirthwood
          • Loth-LOL-ien >
            • Im-LOL-dris
            • Smirkwood
            • well, that coulda' been worse
        • Sherlocked
        • catz and doges on fandom
        • Faithful Sidekicks
    • murals
    • scribblings
    • coloring pages
  • mermaid tales
    • Gramma Swordwhale's Mermaid Blog >
      • how to mermaid
      • merfolk on the Chesapeake
      • my life as a mermaid
    • privateers and pumpkins and ponies oh my!
    • stupid gravity (the adventures of a mermaid on Eastern Neck Is.) >
      • stupid gravity credits
    • stupid gravity: the search for sea glass >
      • stupid gravity: the search for sea glass: credits
    • Stupid Gravity: Misty Cloudy Windy Stormy Augh! >
      • Misty Stormy credits
    • Stupid Gravity: the search for mermaids
    • mermaids, Moana and Maui, beached on Christmas Eve
    • horseshoe crabs forever
    • stupid gravity: hot hot hot >
      • hot hot hot credits
  • Chincoteague
    • back to the islands 2021 >
      • Ponies 2021
    • identify that pony
    • chincoteague pony art
    • Fall Roundup Oct 2019
    • Chincoteague 2019
    • pookas pumpkins and swamp ponies
    • Chincoteague Carousel
    • Chincoteague November 2018
    • the 3rd Sea Voyage of Makenuk's Fin
    • wild horses and kayaks 2017
    • wild ponies in camp
    • North Beach
    • on island time
    • saltwater cowboys
    • Chincoteague
    • Christmas by the Sea
    • island ponies
    • Ace and Unci revolt
    • beached
    • running water in between
    • Assateague Light
    • the Haunted Lagoon
  • crafty stuff
    • photo your toys >
      • how to photograph Breyers in the wild
      • Lokigator and Throg's Epic Adventure
      • Sam and Bucky's Excellent Adventure
      • Mando and Grogu
      • paint and wet snow pants
      • Legolas and Hwin, snow
      • derps (or how not to photograph Breyers and others)
      • Wonder Horse repaint
      • wild Breyers >
        • printable prints and downloads
        • water horses
        • beach Breyers
        • Lotus Legolas and Arod
        • teeny tiny Breyers
        • backyard Breyers and Schleichs
        • vintage breyers
        • Hartland Horses
        • Black Horses
      • educational display
      • Schleich and Safari Faeries
      • North beached
      • more model horses
      • beach party
      • advenatureData
      • Finding Hank
      • Otterlock and Hedgejawn >
        • Hounded in Baskerville
      • how to photograph your dragon
    • Rich Toy hobby horse rehab
    • ModPodge rules
    • paint pours
    • flour salt clay
    • chalk paint
    • rock it: paint rocks and use or lose them
    • faerie gardens >
      • more faerie gardens
      • faerie festival at Spoutwood Farm
    • sea this tutu (and make)
    • I found Dory
    • knit me a mermaid, or chicken, or Hei Hei
    • sea treasures
    • sea glass
    • sea horses
    • rehabbing horse epic fail >
      • do you wanna build a snow pony?
      • do you wanna build a sand pony?
      • Barbie horse gets a makeover
    • mermaid saddles
    • Yule Laugh, Yule Cry... >
      • a Brandywine Christmas
    • Uncle Bob's Toys >
      • Uncle Bob's Toys 2016
      • more: Uncle Bob's Crafts
      • the Adventures of Mortimer
  • adventures
    • Go Play Outside
    • Nature Deficit Disorder
    • I heart Nature
    • autumn light
    • cats
    • mushing 101 >
      • dogs on wheels >
        • Autumn Run on Wheels
      • dogsled
      • dogsledding: running on snow! >
        • Groundhog Day
      • kids and dawgs: first sled run
      • Klondike Derby
      • Sled Dogs and Pirate Ships
      • Christmas Day Run: Rail Trail
      • Horses and Huskies: when predator and prey share the trail
      • Schipperke doo dah >
        • Runnin' with the Big Dogs
        • Hobbit Husky
      • women who run with the wolves
      • Play Time
      • wubba wubba
      • New Year's Dog Day
      • Team Swordwhale
    • trains, sleddogs, and horses oh my!
    • butterscotch and sprinkles
    • horses >
      • horse reference for art
      • ponies small but mighty
      • First Horse: Saraf
      • the Wild Black Mare
      • between thunder and lightning
      • Goliath, Nevada Mustang
      • Yataalii
    • Planet Water >
      • Planet fish tank
      • planet toadpool
      • Planet Pond
      • Planet Stream
      • Planet River
      • Planet Marsh
      • Planet Ocean
      • Planet Water Bird >
        • Planet Water Bird: gulls
      • Planet turtle
      • Planet water snake
      • planet amphibian
    • kayak! >
      • blue boat home
      • kayaking 101
      • kayaking Assateague and Chincoteague
      • how to train your dragonfly
      • Chasing Raven
      • the Susquehanna River >
        • the Rock Garden >
          • return to the Rock Garden
        • Conewago Dreamin'
        • the Conejehola Flats
        • Thunderbird Island (petroglyphs on the Susquehanna)
        • to the White Lady and Beyond
      • Calvert Cliffs fossils
      • Sassafras River Lotus Paddle >
        • Return to the Sassafras
        • sassafras river 2015
        • sassafras paddle 20160814
        • Sassafras River 2017
        • Sassafras river 2018
      • Eastern Neck Island >
        • winter marsh, winter beach
        • Eastern Neck Island: under the supermoon
        • more Eastern Neck Island
      • Pinchot Park
      • Lake Marburg >
        • where are the manatees?
        • ...and the dolphins???
        • macros and SAVs
        • Lake Marburg 2018
        • how to be a kayaking Gramma
    • beached
    • dive in! (SCUBA) >
      • Gourd of the Rings
    • mid Atlantic seashells
    • longship company >
      • December sail
      • Sae Hrafn at Oakley
    • pirates and privateers >
      • Sailing 101
      • Schooner Sultana 1768
      • Capt John Smith Shallop
      • Pride of Baltimore II
      • Kalmar Nyckel
      • downrigging 2010 >
        • Chestertown autumn
        • Downrigging Weekend 2014
        • Downrigging 2015
        • Downrigging 2016
        • Downrigging 2017
        • downrigging 2018: pink tardis
        • Downrigging 2019
      • privateer weekend
    • horseshoe crabs and red knots >
      • horseshoe crab spawn 2021
      • slaughter beach
      • horseshoe crabs and semipalmated sandpipers 2019
    • surfboards and watchtowers: Cape Henlopen >
      • beached
      • Watching Whales >
        • Watching Whales...again
    • Seadogs: Newfoundland water trials
    • wind hounds
    • wild things! >
      • baltimore aquarium
      • there's a hummer in the garage...ceiling ...
      • critter cam
      • sky walking
      • leaf-fall
    • The Adventures of the Good Ship Fearaf
    • the incredibly dead blog page
  • art class
    • framing 101
    • watercolor: how to
    • sip n paints
    • acrylic painting 101
    • wildlife art class
    • Santa, You're Doomed
    • (drawing) horses 101 >
      • horse color 101
      • gaits
      • ponies in motion
      • tack
      • Draw: a horse
    • dogs and wolves
    • go ahead, draw a pirate ship
    • anthropomorphism (cartoon animals and stuff)
    • the Little Kids Page of Big Ideas
    • mural: how to >
      • Gabriel's Whale
      • stuff you need
      • drawing (mural)
      • drawing mural 2
      • painting
      • mural jungle
      • mural bat cave
      • mural cats
      • mural ocean
      • mural arctic
      • mural leaf smacking
      • watershed mural
    • crayons and colored pencils
    • palettes
  • wait wait! let me get the camera!
  • who perpetrated all this???
    • swordbroad

for high quality jpgs of images on these pages or to commission original images email me at swordwhale@yahoo.com



kayaking 101
 cool places to paddle and adventures through the eye of kayakcam



Eastern Neck Is. MD

A few decades ago, a friend (one Nancy Springer (Connor) took me along to her friend's cabin in the Adirondacks. She waxed eloquent about the sea kayaks, available for exploration of Franklin Falls Pond (the "ponds" of New York being rather larger than most lakes in PA). I snorted something about taking my snorkeling gear; floatin' boats were to jump off of to look at the sunken boats. I took my mask and fins, and discovered the visibility was approximately to my elbow.

"Sooooo, what about those floatin' boats?"

I got in one, and didn't get out of it for the rest of the week. By the next spring I had acquired nearly eighteen feet of bright blue plastic I dubbed "Mak-eh-nuk's Fin".

"Mak-eh-nuk" is the Kwakiutl word for "orca", or at least, how it sounds to  English speaking ears, from Eric Hoyt's book: "Orca: the Whale Called Killer" 

Cultures with seals have legends of Sealfolk who take off their sealskins to walk on land in human form. A whale version of this legend is found on the northwest coast of North America (Kwakiutl, Haida and others); the Whale-folk take off their fins to walk on land... the fin becomes the boat. This inspired my central chracter (the one in the "swordwhale" logo), a northwest coast marine biologist/filmaker who also happens to be an orca "selkie".

A wetsuit and scuba gear is the "sealskin" of the explorer of Planet Water. The small, seaworthy, agile, fast, efficient kayak is the "fin" that reconnects us to the feel of the waves, the wonder of what's around the next bend, the sound of seabirds, the hidden nest, the sudden surprise of fins surfacing at paddle length (dolphins, cownosed rays). A kayak is much like the horses I grew up on: an extension of your own body, you feel the shape of the water, the direction of the wind, the way the bottom comes up under you in the shallows.  Like Horse, on land, the Kayak carries us on the Journey. Here are a few of my favorite random shots over the bow of my sea kayak, Mak-eh-nuk's Fin.  

kayaking 101: click here

kayaking 101; click here
click here for more on the Sassafras

Sassafras River

North of Chestertown MD, south of Elk Neck State Park, on the Delmarva Penninsula. The Sassafras empties into the Chesapeake Bay north of the Chester River. It is tidal freshwater, with waves to leap mid-river, quiet coves full of American lotus and wildlife, moon-curves of sandy beach, wooded shores.  From York County PA, a day trip.
paddle Eastern Neck Island

Eastern Neck
and
Chester River

Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge: lies at the mouth of the Chester River (undeveloped agricultural landscape and colonial town of Chestertown), in the north 3rd of the Chesapeake Bay. Awesome paddling, just salty enough for crabs, oysters and rays. Watch for osprey, eagles and waterfowl. A day trip from York County PA.
heron tracks on the flats
outfit your ship here...

Uller's Kayak Shop

The best little shop in York County, you can get great new or used (great deals in great shape) kayaks, gear, and experienced advice. Or book a guided paddling trip (check out the pics and videos from kayakcam, bottom of this page). When the water freezes, you can buy some ski or snowboard gear too.
click here for Point Lookout State Park

Point Lookout

Point Lookout State Park lies at the mouth of the Potomac River. Good camping nearby, quiet backwaters full of wildife, the river's mouth, and the vast stretches of the Bay. And a haunted lighthouse. A weekender.
click for info on the haunted lighthouse!

Conejehola Flats

On the Susquehanna River, south of Wrightsville, across the river from Long Level (Lancaster side) a series of islands and sandbars create prime birding grounds. Look for tracks of herons, egrets, waterfowl and seabirds. Watch for eagles, and take a close look at driftwood, shells and tiny plants. If you can't get to the beach this weekend, this is pretty close!

kayakcam

Photo albums and videos from paddling journeys in Mak-eh-nuk's Fin: click on the pics to go to the album.
paddle pinchot
on island time
Point Lookout State Park MD, twilight
Chincoteague and Assateague
planet pond
Susquehanna River, near Wrightsville, paddling north near evening
on the river
YouTube video: Paddling the Sassafras River
planet river: the Conejehola Flats
Sassafras River: lotus in bloom
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