How to camp at Hart-Miller Island

Hart-Miller Island is a state park, just off the shore of Essex, that is only accessible by private vessel. Most weekends, it is the place where dozens of boats drop their anchors, and float around on a beautiful Maryland summer day. The water off the shore is calm, and the beach has a great, sandy beach.

I have been there with friends that have a boat, and enjoyed a few drinks while swimming in the surprisingly warm bay water. Turn on some music, and grab some Royal Farm’s chicken, and you have a perfect summer day.

But the worst part of that whole experience is when you have to pack up at the end of a great day and head home. Hart-Miller has camping, so its always been on my list of places to overnight camp. But like many things I mean to do, it gets pushed off because there is always ‘next weekend’.

So when Carrie from Canton Kayak Club sent an email to the club asking who wanted to do an over night trip, I decided that there was no better time than now. Canton Kayak Club is a non profit organization that lets you have unlimited access to kayaks around the harbor (and one in Delta, PA) for $150 per year. I joined last years after deciding that I wanted to do more things on the water without dropping more serious money on a boat. While I haven’t used it as much as I thought I would, I have definitely used it enough to justify $150/year.

After some coordination, we ended up with only the essentials that would fit in our kayaks:

• Tent
• Stove (optional: there are fire pits there, although there is no wood for sale)
• Clothes and swimsuit
• Sandals/shoes
• Warm clothes for overnight (even in August, it got a little chilly when it dropped into the 60's)
• Food and marshmallows (must be fire roasted)
• Sleeping bag or pad
• Toiletries (they have bathrooms and toilet paper there)
• Water (optional: there is a hose with potable water there)
• Plates, bowls, utensils as needed
• Chairs (optional)
• Sunscreen
• Bugspray (!!!)

This is a very bare bones list, but we were only going for a single overnight, and had to only bring what would fit in our five kayaks. If we had a boat, or were going for more days, that would significantly change our packing list.

We pushed off from the Island View Waterfront Cafe, which is not only very close to Hart Miller, but it also is one of Canton Kayak Club’s docks with a couple dozen kayaks ready to go. And the cafe has really good post-paddle food.

The 2 mile paddle to the island is not for beginners, but it also was not as challenging as I thought. At times, it does feel like walking across a highway, as boats are zipping around enjoying the day. But the five of us stayed close together to increase visibility and did not have any issues. The crossing can be treacherous if the tide is working against you, or if it is an especially choppy day, but we did not experience that.

It was an amazing August day, with temperatures in the 80’s and humidity unseasonably low. We paddled through the people out with their kids enjoying the bay next to the island. There is no drinking allowed on the state park, but it is allowed in the water. On some weekends, boats will tie up together and have an all night party.

I brought a hammock to sleep in, but was told by the ranger that hammocks are sometimes not allowed. The ranger said that the rule is usually that hammocks must be tied to bigger trees, and must use a larger rope, so you don’t damage the trees, but they mentioned that their boss has recently said that no hammocks were allowed. I told them I hadn’t brought a backup tent, and was told to just not set it up until after 5:30 when they leave. Like most rules in state parks, they are enforced when you are a problem. You can drink if you don’t get loud and drunk, or have a huge group. Hammocks seem to be able to fly if you follow the ‘leave no trace/mark’ rule.

Basically, don’t be a dick and you will be good. Although that’s a good rule in general.

Hart-Miller used to be two islands: Hart Island and Miller Island. But when they were dredging the Inner Harbor between 1984 and 2009, they put the material on the two islands. What we now have is a real gem of a state park that will only get bigger in the coming years as the northern section is opened.

We got there before 4pm, and were able to use the free-to-rent bikes on the 3.5 mile loop around the southern lake. Of course, there is probably an Inception reference as we were on an island in the bay, riding around a lake that had another island in it. We all get the reference though. Whenever the whole island is opened to riding, there will probably be more than a dozen miles of trails.

The water off the beach was probably in the upper 70’s or so, which made for some great swimming. The sand is very clean, with almost no rocks or trash, which also makes for a great experience. There is also a volleyball court.

We used one of the six camping spots on that part of the beach, although there are another 16 further down the beach, and on Pleasure Island just south of Hart Miller. When we were there in mid August, only two out of six spots were taken on our section of the beach.

The most exciting part was when a squall came through just after dark. It went from calm, to 50 mph gusts and rain within 30 seconds. The mosquitoes suddenly thinned out, and it went from calm to “OH NO THE TENT IS FLYING AWAY” almost instantly. The other people that were camping had never been camping before, so they were less than prepared for rain to come on that fast.

It also got much colder than I was expecting. I was doing the hammock camping, and brought an extra layer and long pants for the night, but the storm that came through cooled things off quicker than expected.

The whole thing was a great experience though, and one that I would love to do again. There are some complications with doing a kayak trip, but its not that much more complicated than any other camping trip. Big thanks to Carrie for organizing it, and to everyone else that came that made the whole evening a lot of fun.