We were pleasantly surprised that we slept super well. We thought the heat of the night would keep us up, but by cooling off the boat with our AC via generator for a few hours last night and using our rechargeable battery fan we were able to stay comfortable and cool all night.

We woke up around 7 eager to visit the Dismal Swamp State Park. We were docked at the Dismal Swamp Welcome Center, which is a rest stop on the highway and not part of the neighboring Dismal Swamp State Park. Whatever, the people in both places could not have been more friendly!

The park opens at 8:00, which means that the pedestrian drawbridge that is kept open all night for boaters closes so that people can walk into the park. We loaded up with bug spray, filled our sports bag with water bottles, and went on our way. We arrived a few minutes after 8:00 when the temperature was 75 degrees, 20 degrees cooler than the day’s predicted high. We had to check in at the pedestrian bridge, leaving our names and details about the vehicle in which we arrived. The ranger was funny about it. He said if we weren’t out by 4:30 or so, they would come looking for us because the drawbridge goes up for the night at 5:30 pm. “I don’t think anything will ATTACK you if you get stuck there overnight, but you definitely won’t sleep!” We had told him about how noisy the animals were last night. He asked about what we heard. We didn’t know the specific animals the sounds came from, but they were many and loud! He also told us we needed to check ourselves thoroughly for ticks when we left.

The park museum opens at 9:30, so we went for a walk first. There is a little boardwalk area. A portion was closed for repairs, but we saw two intertwined snakes that we think were copperheads. Then we walked down the canal trail until it ended before turning onto the Martha Washington path until it ended at the Virginia state line. We saw quite a bit of wildlife and evidence of wildlife: some turtles, some snakes, lots of caterpillars and butterflies, a few lizards, deer tracks, vole tracks (we think?), and bear poop (sorry, “scat”). We ended up walking 9 miles and drinking 33.8 ounces of water each.

It was a good 90 degrees by the time we finished our walk. By then, the museum was open and we walked around briefly. We soaked up the air conditioning. We saw from the deck of the museum that boats were on their way to the bridge, so we headed back across it before they arrived and the bridge had to be opened. We had to check in again with the park ranger, who crossed our name off his list of people in the park and asked if we had any ticks on us. We did not, but he said we were the only ones of all the groups that had come and gone who didn’t! [insert commercial for Off! Sportsmen Deep Woods Insect Repellent 3]. We arrived back at the boat to people who were eager to ask questions about the Loop and the boat.

The leisurely morning made us wonder if these are what normal Looper days are like. We usually spend our weekends getting to the next destination so that Owen can work on Monday. Our exploring usually happens on weekday evenings. It was nice to have the time to go somewhere in the morning and not worry too much about the short run we needed to make to our next destination.

By this time, the boats that were coming by the bridge wanted to dock at the free dock. Owen told them we would be leaving in an hour or so, so one boat pulled into the dock and the other rafted off its side. Once we left, the second boat would move to our spot.

We showered and ate lunch, Owen topped off our water tank, and then we were on our way. We had just 17.1 miles to go to get to the free dock before the bridge before the lock to leave the Dismal Swamp Canal. The narrow, shallow channel makes for a very slow trip, so it took about 3.5 hours at idle speed. We bumped a couple things on the bottom, but nothing serious.

We really enjoyed traveling through the swamp! Everything was so green, and we were happy to see some wildlife along the way. Yesterday and today I had seen a few snakes swimming across the water, but Owen hadn’t. Finally, he saw one from a distance and I took over at the helm so he could get video. He was pretty happy to see it. We passed a deer snuggled under some bushes on the side of the canal. We actually backed up so Owen could see. The doe was unamused, and she got up to leave when she saw us for the second time.

We wondered what would happen if we encountered an oncoming vessel, and we learned when we saw a sailboat heading our way. He called us on the radio and said he was going to scoot over to the side to let us pass. He told us “You’re not going to believe how close I’m going to get to the side.” He was right, we would never have scooted over as far as he did. He must have some knowledge about the canal that we didn’t! He reported that even as far over as he was, he was in 5’1″ of water. We waved as we passed and we went our separate ways.

The only thing that could have made this day better would have been a cooler temperature. Three and a half hours of idle speed on a 95 degree day with virtually no wind is UNCOMFORTABLE! Thankfully, Owen had use of a 12-volt fan that was a brilliant gift from our son. I brought up our rechargeable battery fan and aimed that sucker right at me. Later, Owen brought up our ice packs that go in our coolers. We each had one and tried to decide which location on our body was most effective at cooling us off. I think we decided that moving it around to different spots was the way to go. We also drank roughly a million fluid ounces of water. I may be exaggerating slightly, but not by much. It occurs to me now that it might have been worth it to dump some of that water over our heads. We’ll keep that idea in our back pocket for next time.

We had thought we would have the option in Chesapeake to dock either at a free dock on the starboard side or a little farther down on the port side. However, as we got closer and investigated the charts better, we determined that the only option for us was at the free dock on the starboard side because there was a short bridge in between the two. No matter, there was room at the dock, and we sidled right in. It’s a concrete dock with several big cleats. There was one smaller boat there, and we settled in with our aft hanging off the end a little. There’s virtually no current in this spot, no one was going to wake us there, and we felt quite safe. The dock is along an empty parking lot with a house next door. The house has some chickens and a rooster who welcomed us. Well, the rooster cockadoodle dooed. I can’t be certain whether he knew we were there.

There was a Food Lion very close to the dock, but it was a little tricky to cross the street to get there. There was some construction there that closed the entrance to the Hardee’s that is in the grocery store’s outlot. There were no sidewalks in this area, but traffic had to stop for a stop sign at the intersection, so it wasn’t too hard to cross the street. We ended up eating at the nearby Waffle House before stopping by the grocery store for red pepper jelly and, as is our wont, ice cream.

We headed back to the boat and turned on the generator, hoping to get the temperature down before heading to bed. High fuel prices make us reticent to use the generator any more than we have to, but our ability to sleep is important enough that we need to at least cool our bedroom to a reasonable temperature. We ran it for a couple hours to bring the temp down in our room, then turned it off and headed for bed.

The Dismal Swamp was swampy but definitely not dismal! We loved our time there!