Lower Passaic, by mistake

Well, as the title would indicate, I paddled the lower Passaic today. I was planning on doing the Hackensack River but that was kind of a disaster. I took the day off to paddle and based on maps and reports from the Hackensack Riverkeeper I was going to launch off of Bergen Turnpike. Well, the area that they said we could launch looked really dicey and I didn't feel comfortable so I went upstream a bit to the Wanda club's dock. When I got there I asked someone where it was and they said it had been washed away. Then I went to Johnson Park. When I got there I asked a town worker about launching and he said "you better be careful...don't time the tide just right and you'll be stranded". Well that didn't make me feel comfortable. So I decided that I would leave the Hack. Hmmmm...what to do? I had wanted to try and launch the Passaic from Nutley so that's what I decided to do. When I got there the ramp was certainly easy enough to launch without getting wet at all. I paddled upstream...it was quite windy and blowing right at me so it made the paddling a bit more difficult than it needed to be. It was not the prettiest paddle in the world...I was dodging garbage kind of the whole way. I did manage to see a crew team practicing and also found a little feeder stream that I paddled in for a bit. That was kind of fun. I made it a short trip, only about 5 miles. But...it was paddling and not working!

Lower Passaic from Nutley

View Passaic from Nultey 7/5/12 in a larger map