Paulinskill River with HRCKC

This was the first time I went on a paddling trip with the folks from the Hackensack River Canoe and Kayak club. I have to say that it was such a pleasure to paddle with these guys (and gals). They couldn’t be nicer. As I’m new to paddling in moving water (other than the Passaic River which really doesn’t move at all) they were extremely helpful in teaching me some of the basics on how to read a river, negotiating the river, eddies, surfing, water flows , etc. I guess I didn’t know how much I didn’t know. As for the trip, the water was very low and the river was scratchy on many spots. I think I took the bottom completely off my boat!! It was a blast, however and I can’t wait to go on another moving water trip. We started off at 11:30 b y the time we launched and about halfway through, we stopped for lunch on an island in the middle of the river. Then paddled the rest of the way, finally starting to drive home around 4:00 (lots of talking time too). There were only one wipe out along the way when one of the members was having a problem and another turned to look at what was going on, causing her to get caught in a strainer and with her fast thinking and the fast thinking of those around her, managed to get her out of trouble and although both women were soaked, no one got hurt. After regrouping we paddled to the end. A great trip!

Here are some pictures from the trip:

Paulinskill River, - 2/24/12

View Paulinskill 3/24/12 in a larger map

Environmental Center downstream with Dani

I took Daniella for a paddle on the Passaic. It was supposed to be sunny and mid 60′s but when we hit the water it was foggy and mid 40′s. There hasn’t been much rain lately so the water level was quite low and there wasn’t much flow. We got in the water and started slowly downstream. After going under Route 280 it was a bob and weave trying to get around the blow-downs in the water. Shortly after heading into Essex County Park we came to a blockage. I may have tried it on my own, and maybe portaged on my own, but not with Dani. Besides, she was already complaining that her butt hurt so we turned around and headed back. All in all the trip was about 3.5 miles and took us about an hour and a half.


View 03/18/2012 Short paddle with Dani in a larger map