Those who come for a day or week to the barrier islands of South Jersey seldom stray from the beaches and boardwalks. Come for longer, or move to the area, and broaden your journey of exploration. Yesterday, we took a boat trip across the Great Egg Harbor Bay and up the mouth of the Great Egg River. We picked English Creek as our country waterway, and took a hard right, meandering past the old English Creek marina where tumbledown structures, old houseboats and newer craft peacefully coexist. A sole cormorant was perched on a piling, and he followed us with his eyes but so no cause for alarm as we slowly motored by. The marsh grasses were still wearing their bright summer green, complements of the rains of storms Irene and Lee. The current was being offset by the rising tide, and clouds drifted by overhead. We went as far as we could, stopping at the "bridge" that carries the Somers Point-Mays Landing Road, and saw first hand that a small section of this low span had collapsed downward, causing the roadway to sag. A new bridge is in the works, and the road is closed to traffic. Even hours before high tide, the water was up to the undercarriage of the bridge. Perhaps the new bridge will be high enough to allow through traffic. We turned and headed back downstream, looking unsuccessfully for muskrat huts. We slowed once we reached the river, and enjoyed seeing a large heron gull resting on a weathered channel marker. Around the next bend, just the piling for the next marker remained, and a bald eagle was perched atop it, looking for dinner. We slowed to admire him, and he gave us a golden stare, shook his head and took off. We watched him climb effortlessly into the sky and work his way toward the tree line in the distance. We smiled, sighed, and headed for home.