The campground has canoe and kayak rentals, and carries people upriver to paddle back down. This morning the weather was clear, so we arranged with them to shuttle us with our canoe. By 10:30 we were on the river, Cedar Creek, which turned out to be clear, narrow, shallow, fast and winding. There were two groups kayaking who rode up to the put-in with us, but we launched ahead of them and never saw them afterward. The creek was great fun to paddle. Plenty of snags, logs and sharp turns, much like Juniper Run at home. No rocks; the creek runs through the Pine Barrens, which have sandy soil. The glaciers never got this far south to leave chunks of rock they'd picked up. The woods were thick with cedars, pines and red maples. And pines, too. The run was supposed to be three hours, but we reached the one-hour-to-go bridge after only one hour. So we changed gears and collected trash for the rest of the trip. Who would leave their trash beside a beautiful creek in the woods? Answer: many many people. One of the pieces of trash we picked up was a trash bag the canoe rental people give out. "What should we do with this trash bag, Helen? Whatever. Just throw it in the creek with the beer cans, I guess".
We drove to Cape May at the southern tip of the New Jersey shore, and we had plenty of time so we stuck to U.S. 9, which goes through all the little shore towns, instead of the Garden State Parkway. The Jersey shore is not especially picturesque, but once south of Barnegat there was increasing space between towns. Many are oriented toward boating and beaches. Down toward Cape May there are even some farms. Once we set up camp we drove around the historic center of Cape May, a good movie set for a 1900-era seaside resort. Lots of Victorian rooming houses and B&B's along the shore. Was here once before, by boat with the T's, but didn't see much of the town then.
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