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Showing posts from May, 2020

HUDSON RIVER paddling, between Stuyvesant, Coxsackie, Stockport and Athens

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Nov 5, 2016 - HUDSON RIVER from Stockport Landing, started ~2 hours before low tide. Partly sunny, temp rising through the 50s, little wind. On a mission. Short paddle on Stockport Creek then S on the HR. Soon into East Flats, the bay was already fairly shallow, it's deeper along the N shore. N into a creek (L of a duck blind) to where my GPS had gone overboard 3 days ago. After a couple of sweeps I spotted it in ~15" of water & retrieved it. Back to the HR & stopped at a sandy beach for lunch at low tide. Examined the GPS, put it back together & it worked! after being submerged for 3 days! Wind picked up from the NW so headed out. Mission accomplished. Bald eagles, mergansers, gulls. 3.2 hours. Nov 2, 2016 - HUDSON RIVER downstream from Coxsackie. Started ~1.5 hours before low tide. Down W shore (light development) past 4 Mile Point to West Flats. Was able to find one deep channel into the marsh at low tide. Crossed over to Priming Hook & back on E shore (m...

LEWEY LAKE & MIAMI RIVER paddling

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Lewey Lake is on NY Route 30 between Speculator and the hamlet of Indian Lake. You can pay a day-use fee at the state campground and use the boat launch next to the swimming beach or put in on the lake’s outlet where it goes under Route 30. A long ridge of mountains is immediately across the lake; Lewey and Snowy mountains rise over 2,000 feet above the water. I like to cross over to the undeveloped west shore then head south. The campground and several houses and cabins occupy the east shore. Loons are usually seen (five on a recent trip in 2011 including at least one juvenile) and sometimes heard. The mouth of the Miami River is small but not too hard to find. Swamp maples growing in this wide wetland valley turn bright red and contrast with the green marsh grass. The river (actually more stream than river) twists and turns with very few straight sections of any length – I hope you have been practicing ...

NEW YORK PADDLING GUIDEBOOKS

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New York offers the paddler a mindboggling variety and quantity of paddling destinations, from small streams to big rivers, diminutive ponds to expansive lakes, and whitewater as well as flatwater. Fortunately for us, these destinations are well-documented in the plethora of guidebooks available today. At the cost of a movie ticket or dinner at a restaurant, a one-time purchase of a guidebook can bring you many years of pleasure, whereas the movie or dinner offer just an hour or two of satisfaction. If you can’t be out there paddling, you can at least spend time with some of the following guidebooks and start planning that day paddle or weeklong camping trip. In my comments I will try to give you an overview of the content as well as my thoughts on each book’s strengths and weaknesses. *Recommended for paddling in the Adirondacks. Quiet Water New York by John Hayes and Alex Wilson – This is perhaps the best flatwater guide to the whole state with 200 trips listed in an informative,...