Virginia? Ocean?

Elliot,

Large bays are a pain to packraft. I advise a sea kayak for paddling. I tried from the Resurection river estuary to Lowell point in resurrection bay with my Alpacka Denali. It was very exhausting, and I only had day gear.

Yeah, you’ll probably get blown around a bit trying to packraft on the coast. Probably not worth it. You’ll have to go west towards Appalachia to find better stuff. There’s a lot of Class II-III up there. The James River in Richmond, for example. Look up the rivers on the database on riverfacts.com for a good list.

I’m just north of Richmond but used to live near Yorktown. Big water with wind down there. Great place for a sea kayak or SOT for fishing and exploring the marsh. Alpakas are sturdy, but oyster shells would be a constant danger. All the rivers cross the fall line (basically where 95 crosses them) and vary from longer mild riffles to great falls of the potomac. Lots of urban areas have trails that make for good self shuttle laps. Richmond’s nice for this. The east’s not set up for traditional pack raft trips but you can make some interesting trips if you don’t mind a little road walking. the AT and shenandoah, C&O towpath and potomac, New river and it’s associated trail, various creeking with hiking trails alongside. But that’s gonna be 3+ hours from you.

There are campable islands, just watch your tides. Check out the va seaside paddling trail, the eastern shore’s nice.
http://www.deq.virginia.gov/Programs/CoastalZoneManagement/CZMIssuesInitiatives/SeasideWaterTrail/TrailMapwithLaunchSites.aspx