It's been a loooong time since my last post. Been very busy with moving to a new home and building a horse farm for my wife and daughter. We are skipping our annual trip to Lake George due to the high cost of gas and the upcoming year with both of my daughters in college. We decided to stay closer to home and still get to use the boat and the camper. Elk Neck seemed the perfect fit. It's about 100 or so miles from here instead of the 375 for Lake George. I am hoping someone has some information about boating in the Elk Neck State Park area. My nephew is taking his boat also and we we arrive 8/4/08 for 4 days. Any info anyone has will be ever so helpful as we have never been there. I haven't been anyway from the board, just haven't posted in quite awhile. Thanks for all your help

This is our 1st year boating on the Northern Bay, but have boated (trailered and launched at various ramps) practically every weekend on the Elk, Bohemia or Sassafras Rivers since mid-April. The Elk Neck Park ramps are big and wide with pilings, however it's a very rough/challenging launch from there since it's located at the junction of two rivers and the bay (especially if a barge is cruising through from the C&D Canal ). I'd suggest launching just north (5 miles or so) at Anchor Marina. They're right off of 272 just south of the town of North East, MD. Nice double wide ramp with long floating docks.

I launched from Elk Neck at low tide. It was fun getting from the dock to the boat as it was 4-5' difference in height. The parking lot from the ramp is a nice hike too. As Grip mentioned, it gets choppy at the ramp because of the location. I launched there once last year and I think it was $10 for MD residents and $11 for out of staters.

the camp ground at ENSP is nice and clean. We camped there twice and the bathrooms were very clean and that was after raining all weekend.

There is gas and restroom facilities at the ramp too.
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Welcome back CCC

+1...I forgot to mention the fixed docks/tide swing

Thanks Grip, I didn't mention low tide was present when we launched, high tide was present when we retrieved and the dock height was better. One word of caution, this area of the bay is shallow. Out in the channel it was no deeper than 8-10'. Heading up the C&D Canal to the Bohemin River the depth was a count down. I stopped going down the Bohemin when the depth finder flashed 4 Feet.

For my little boat, these waters are a little too big for me but the boating is endless in the bay.

Thanks for the info, I have a couple more questions if you guys don't mind. What is the water like, is it fresh, salt or brackish? Are the channels clearly marked? Most of the boating we do up here is salt water and some brackish and some of the channels can get very shallow at low tide. We are looking froward do boating at Elk Neck as it is always fun to have a new adventure on the water. Thanks again, Gary.

The water should be fresh at ENSP. The last time I was there the best way to describe it was like chocolate milk.

Do you have charts for the bay? I would say it is clearly marked however the cans and nuns are sometimes out of sight from each other so the use of a compass is needed or a good sense of direction. I found this to be below the area called the "Flats" on the way to the Sassafras River from Havre D'Grace.

One other thing, look out for crab pots, they can come up very quickly.

http://www.vims.edu/physical/WEB/PRESNT/bsalt.htm

OH, when you camped there, what did you do with the boat? Did you pull it out each night, or is there a place to pull it up onto the beach, or moor it or some transient slips?

Thanks for the reply's. Let you know how we made out when we get back. Any other info we need to know about?

We did not take the boat with us the both times we camped at ENSP. The campground is a short drive to the ramp. You would need to pull the boat out each day and tow it back to the campground. The campground has some sites that are waterfront but no docks. I wouldn't recommend mouring a boat overnight as the channel can get rough if a cargo ship goes through.


If you have time, head up the Sassafras towards Georgetown. Just past the Georgetown draw bridge it is real quiet and a good place to ski, tube etc. The marinas in that area are fantastic in seeing how the other half lives. The draw bridge is high enough for our boats to go under.

CCC200, I'm not sure if your planning on boating much on the Elk River (especially the northern part past the C & D), but if you are, review a chart and pay close attention to the channel/buoys and your sounder because that water gets very skinny.

The Bohemia River slightly up the Elk from ENSP is a nice/popular area to raft up (at or just past the 213 bridge). You can get your boat fairly close to shore and the water is shallow and sandy bottomed. The picture in my signature line is from the Bohemia and we're probably 50 feet from the shore and the depth was around 3 feet.

And like On Holiday suggested, try and make the short trip down to the Sassafras River...it's a beautiful river. There's also Betterton Beach (with dockage) at the entrance to the river on the southern side, if you don't want to travel in to the 213 bridge.

Hey guys. I am CCC200 nephew Todd. We are looking forward to leaving next Monday the 4th for boating and camping for four days. I have heard a lot where the river is shallow but we will try stay in the channels. We are looking for a place that will be easy to water ski, tube, and wakeboard. Any insite on that?? Also at night where did you leave your boat??

Todd

Rinker4265, we haven't wake boarded, etc. on the Elk, but have seen people along the shore near ENSP and just up the Elk at Piney Creek Cove. I'd think it would be particularly good for wakeboarding due to the river traffic/wakes created . Just in the Bohemia River on the right is Veazy Cove; we will tube in and around this cove occaisionally. Also, if you go in further on the Bohemia and/or the Sassafras Rivers, you'll see many areas (especially on the Sassafras due to it's length/width).

Thanks. Mostly we will be waterskiing, tubing and kneeboarding. Thank you for the ideas on where to do this.