The Friends of Little Manzanita Bay planned an all-comers paddle event for September, 2023.  The idea was to get the word out to all our community supporters, gather in the Little Bay on a favorable tide and follow Manzanita Creek up as far as it would take us.  Following our successful resistance to a proposal for a dock more than twice as big as anything else on the Little Bay, we wanted to keep front and center our commitment to promoting human-powered uses and preserving the Bay’s natural assets.

With an 11.8 foot tide predicted for the afternoon of September 24, we scheduled the group paddle for 3PM.  Our Executive Director, Cheryl, put the word out to more than 400 folks who had supported us in the dock campaign.  We posted flyers, designed by our Treasurer, Clay, at strategic points around the neighborhood on both sides of the Bay.  The weather report was for rain, and we expected maybe three or four members of the Board of Directors would show up, but few others.  As we all know, the “rain” icon on your phone often means just a little drizzle, however, gray skies in late September don’t usually make paddlers put their boats in, and we were not optimistic. 

            But then folks started showing up, some coming from Dock Street or from the Road End on the south side of the bay.  Some came up from Big Manzanita Bay, or from their homes up and down the creek or out on the Port Orchard Channel.  They were young and old, in kayaks, Hobies, canoes, and on paddleboards – anything that floats without a motor.   Fred (the “Mayor of Little Manzanita Bay”) brought his rowboat with a homemade figurehead on the bow and bags full of cookies.  He was, as always, extremely  popular.  Board member Carrie rode the front of a paddleboard powered by her son. Some of us were bundled up against the rain and chill; some of those in their teens were in shorts and t-shirts and sometimes in the water.   Someone counted 22 boats; others said there were 28.  A couple of dozen watercraft, anyway.

            The whole thing was Clay’s idea, to build community, so he said a few words to welcome everyone, thank them for braving the elements, and to start us off.  We headed east up the creek past Belinda’s, Peter’s, Chris’s and Al’s places, past a couple of listing swim floats and an aluminum boat tangled in the brush, a derelict catamaran and a car tire up one of the tributaries at the first bend – all potential Little Bay cleanup projects that FOLMB plans to undertake in the coming year.  We turned north into the flat water around the first hairpin, out of the wind, where everything gets quiet and calm – a different world.  A seal had been following us but left us at that bend as we entered the dripping realm of the otters, raccoons, kingfishers and the occasional Great Blue Heron.  We held our breaths passing under a very diagonal 90-foot Douglas fir that seemed to hesitate in the act of falling (It fell in early October). 

            We followed the Creek upstream as far as the tangle of fallen brush and timber would allow and turned around – an exercise in two-way traffic management.  We talked about the recently acquired Land Trust parcels planted this year with a wide variety of native plants, and future plans to consolidate those holdings for long-term preservation.   On the way out, some of our hardy teen paddlers braved the water and, with the reappearing seal, swam out into the Bay.  Rewards awaited on the north shore, where neighbor Kimberly had brewed up a big pot of excellent chili, with homemade cornbread and honey, and we all gratefully spoiled whatever might have been plans for dinner, thanked her profusely and paddled off in all directions for a sauna, a shower or just a Sunday nap. 

            Thanks from FOLMB to all the paddlers who braved the Fall drizzle!  Stay tuned for announcement of FOLMB Paddle 2.0.  (We’ll try to do it in August this year.)