Canoe Paddle---Part 3

Now for the last part, because I did leave out some good stuff.  One cannot say that I do not pay attention.

We had left the bay and paddled out to the wide part of the Potomac River. We were at the place where it is about two miles wide ( I am guessing here).  And I am always a bit wary of open spaces in a canoe...especially those waterways that have motorboats.  Fortunately, it was a calm fall weekday, with few people about.  We passed these workers below who were using some dredging equipment.

Hubby thought they were looking for sharks' teeth which can be worth some money if large enough.  I hope they had a permit working in the bright daylight that way.

We paddled on looking for a nice lunch spot as we were getting hungry.  Some outdoorsman left us this little retreat and a small beach.  We pulled up the canoe and unloaded the small cooler and found several beached logs on which to sit and watch the world go by.

The two kayakers we had met earlier waved as they passed along the shoreline.

Beaches along such a windward side are full of all kinds of detritus, treasures, and garbage and fun to explore with a sandwich in hand.

This is where I found the teeny tiny black shark's tooth fossil in the sand.  Low tide was our friend as this beach is mostly underwater at high tide.

The day was calm and relatively warm, which tricks you into thinking you can stay forever.  Behind our beach-log chairs was a large sand-fall that showed how dangerous things can get at high tide.  We spent about 30 minutes exploring and taking photos, then, reloaded the canoe and put our life vests back on, and pushed the canoe back out into the river to paddle back up to the bay and our car.

More bald Eagles soared overhead in elegant acrobatic dances.

As I wrote, the shoreline is dangerous where high bluffs have started to erode and fall into the river.  This is why there are shark's teeth fossils.  They wash out from the ancient layers of sand that collapse onto the river's edge.  This is also was why I was surprised to see a dog walker who seemed not to fear an unlucky event such as the collapse of the shoreline above her head.

She had a total of three lovely and sloppy-wet water canines that she was following/watching.  Her husband remained safely down the way on a high bluff and waved as we paddled by.

Eventually, after much paddling, we reached the bay once again and hubby decided to explore the right-hand side which was just a small turn-in that we had not explored in a few years. So we turned just before we approached the dock for pull-out.  As we got closer, we heard water trickling which is most intriguing on a flat bay, and paddled further to find one last treasure.

We came to a dead stop as this bluff of mud and grass emerged and those of you who frequent the out-doors may have guessed what stopped us...

...a large and well-maintained beaver dam.  While did not see any beavers, we were impressed with the work.

Thanks for staying the length of the trip!