I wrote this for my uncle's newspaper Hampton Life. It's a tourist paper for my hometown area, which happens to be one of Earth's most beautiful places ...
As the days get shorter and the beaches cool down, what better way to enjoy the golden Hamptons light and fall foliage than exploring Accabonac Creek in a kayak. It’s hurricane season, and apart from die-hard surfers who live for stormy days, the calm and peaceful waters of this insider’s hideaway deserve a good paddle or two. The perfect solution for nature-loving types who seek to re-visit water sports without the rough and tumble of the ocean, kayaking is a great way to see marshlands and bays as well as marine life and birds while getting a bit of exercise. Families will appreciate the safety element without losing the charm and beauty, plus there are no nasty resident parking regulations at the Creek’s entrance.
Forget the Hamptons of golf and expensive fashions, this sport is down home, so much so that the locals will actually talk to you whilst paddling about! Do say hello to the fishermen, clam-diggers and the like; they will get that you are practically a Hamptons native yourself. Your humble writer enjoyed a chat with a man who commented that the mud was a bit thick and he was looking for clams, digging his hands deep into the waters with the patience of a beekeeper. The area is protected by not only its inhabitants but by the esteemed East End organizations Accabonic Protection Committee, East Hampton Preservation Society and the Peconic Land Trust, who have ensured that your journey will be pristine and unpolluted.
Kayaking is rooted in the earliest traditions of the East End, tracing its history to the Native American dugout canoe. The kayak’s wood-carved antecedent was used on these very same waters as a mode of transportation and livelihood for tribes that fished, clammed and navigated the Creek. Think of the Montauk tribe folk silently gliding along only to pounce on their marine prey while you navigate these waters in all of your modern paraphernalia.
Old-school kayakers will claim it is a west coast thing, but don’t be fooled. The sport was reinvented in the mid-90’s as it migrated from river to ocean to more placid marshland waters. Companies like Cobra and X started making boats out of plastic in their garages, tinkering with high-tech and lightweight materials that didn’t cost much and could eventually be mass-produced. One such invention was the self-bailing boat, from Cobra, which was made for ocean waves, with holes in the middle to release water from the boat. This improvement ran alongside the slimming of longer, thinner designs intended for speed, the skinny frame perfect for rivers. The kayaks on offer and ideal for Accabonac Creek are medium-sized, in both one-man and two-man varieties, with enough girth to be comfortable on flat waters yet streamlined for the more adventurous jaunts possible into Gardiner’s Bay and other open waters.
You can rent a kayak or two and explore the area with or without a tour guide, but there is one essential piece of the Creek to visit: Louse Point. This thin stretch of land that acts as a natural buffer to the opening into Gardiner’s Bay is such a graceful and beautiful piece of earth that it was celebrated by one of the area’s most famous artists, Willem de Kooning, in his painting “Rosy Fingered Dawn at Louse Point”.
The safety do’s and don’t’s are pretty straightforward: paddle in pairs so there’s always someone to pull you out of the mud or call for help if you should tip over or fall out; and always stay with your boat, no matter what – after all, it’s a floatation device, even if it should capsize. You will want to bring a camera to get action shots of your group and to capture the gorgeous landscape and water views to tease your friends at home, but be sure to either get a waterproof or keep it locked tight when you’re not using it in the kayak’s airtight container. Lastly, if you are kayaking early morning, do bring along some bug spray.
Many come kayaking to lose their type-A-ness, to chill out, relax and de-stress from the pressures of work and urban living, or to further delve into the gorgeous nature that is Accabonac Creek. One of the tour leaders perched down at the Creek waxed poetic when he said, gazing at the water and the kayaks lined up along its edge,” this sport will transform us if we let it”. He recalled a specific tour that he was leading of high-powered lawyers who once a bit of mist had settled onto the Creek, blocking their visibility and way home, became very human and real when they realized the power of nature and the importance of keeping calm, cool and collected. Movie mogul types and TV stars are attracted by the anonymous, un-Hamptons style in which kayakers go about their sport, with nothing flashy about it, and no paparazzi in sight.
The wildlife on display in and along the Creek is rather outstanding, with a graceful collection of bird types topping the list. The ubiquitously sexy, nasty swans (don’t get close to their babies, the grayish-brown ones) are bobbing about, and they generally like to hug the shore, where they can dip in and out of the water. Next come the osprey, also known as sea hawks for the way they swoop down into the water to catch their pray. You may notice they dim out in numbers in the fall, but look to their nests, built by the town on tall, thin wood platforms. The real beast of burden for fishermen are the cormorants, who have a lovely deep blue color and look at first glance like blue herons, but are certainly much more friendly and approachable. They tend to travel in packs, and are hated by those who fish as they eat traps. Catch them doing a characteristic move of extending their wing span, a beautiful sight, as they dry their feathers. They are a species in mid-evolution, as they swim to catch fish but still have their feathered ‘clothes’ on, which as humans know is not the easiest task.
Whether you come for the sport, the fresh air or the impressive natural beauty, one thing is for certain – kayaking is the way forward this autumn. I’ll see you on the Creek.
Written by Sarah Coursey
When not kayaking on Accabonac Creek, Sarah can be found whizzing past double-decker buses in London on her trusty Vespa.
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