5/1-4/2022
Today, Cape Henlopen is a Delaware State Park with a great seashore campground, bike and hiking trails, unspoiled beachfront and dunes, and a couple of freshwater ponds. The bike trails have a great mix of scenery, and are a great draw for the campers and day trippers. The campground has areas for tenting and RV’s with partial hookups (water + electric). The park area reminds me of Cape Cod without the development. A short drive south to Rehoboth Beach will satisfy your need for crowded 3 lane commercial roads with determined drivers and all of the tourist shops and restaurants you could wish for.
On a warm evening, we rode 2 wheels to the beach area as others were leaving, and enjoyed the soft sand, sounds of the surf and gulls. The surf was 2-3’, the water a cool 60F. Areas of the shore are open to auto’s, who are advised to lower tire pressure to prevent getting stuck in the soft sand. Air fill stations are provided on exit. Most of the vehicles are surf casters trying their luck in the evening. We spotted three dorsal fins surface a few times. During the day, we were able to ride more of the trails, through the forest, dunes, and marsh. Linda snapped some great bird pictures.
One of the original craft brews to widely distribute is Dogfish Head, located in Rehoboth, Delaware and now in other locations. Their slogan is “off-centered ales for off-centered people”. The first Dogfish ale I tasted was a delicious Brown Ale, around 20 years ago. I was fascinated by the name, label and the liquid content. I was a lucky to join a number of marathon deep sea fishing trips on an old wooden boat named “Saucy” docked in Newburyport, Massachusetts with some crusty scuppers that I worked with. These trips started at 05:00 and finished around 6:00 PM, the voyage was past the horizon with no visible land. Some days were lucky and the catch plentiful, some days were not. Every outing was a long and a hard new adventure. One event which always occurred was the dogfish pull. With baited hooks on heavy weights 100-200’ below, the goal is to catch the haddock, cod and pollock near the ocean floor. But sometimes the dogfish were biting, and they are dogs to drag up 100-200’ to the surface! They are not keepers, they are sand sharks. The moans and groans abound when pulling up dogfish after dogfish. What is better than to share a bottle of Dogfish head brown ale with your fishing buddies. Rich Wolfe placed his bottle proudly in a mini-shrine where it stood prominent in his office at work for about 2 years. May Rich rest in peace, and Real Madore another salty dog. Why the flash back to dog fish, because it is necessary to visit one of the origins of Dogfish Head Brewing in Rehoboth, Delaware. We enjoyed a very good dinner and flight of local Dogfish brew, in memory.
Linda says, “lets go to the beach” on our last evening, don’t ask me twice, we drove to a different location in the park. At the top of the bluff, a young surfer dude heading back says, “the dolphins are jumping down there”. Linda moves fast down the soft sand path camera in hand. I am steps behind, the beach ahead is framed by two sets of stone jetties. I see no dolphins, but Linda is focused at the far right side. Walking over there is a dolphin pod appearing here and there, dorsal fins breaking the surface in solo and in pairs. I don’t know how many were there but I expect it was six or so, based on the surfacing and locations. Some were clearly smaller, could be young ones taking lessons. The dolphin show continued for about 45 minutes. Big moments include, dual porpoising, quality tail lifts, and tail slaps which are very rare. We did notice a few near-jumps, these events are very hard to capture with a camera, you just never know where they will occur. Simultaneous to this, at the left side jetty is a group of 8 surfers. The good waves are up to 4+ feet with a great crest, long curl and run toward the beach. From the vantage point on the left jetty, this show was too good to be free 🙂
Retired and Loving It 