Canoeing and Kayaking New York: June 2010

I have been wanting to map the Nissequoge River for my new book for some time. So, despite the threat of thunderstorms in the afternoon and a rapidly ebbing tide, my father, brother-in-law, and I hatched a last-minute plan to paddle it last weekend. By the time we finished setting up our shuttle, and were ready to launch, the river was quite low. In fact, many paddlers were already on their way back from the mouth of the river, having already completed it that morning. Nevertheless, we launched our boats in the last remaining inches of water and headed north.

My father and brother-in-law launching from Paul T. Given County Park

Thankfully, the depth of the river did increase as we headed downstream, making paddling easier. I always take too long when paddling narrow rivers like this, taking pictures and identifying flowers and plants along the way. Thus, my dad and b-in-l left me behind with only a family of Canada Geese to keep me company.

Turn around little guy, you're heading the wrong way!

We did catch up to each other again, and had a great time floating along with both the tide and wind in our favor. In fact, the wind kept increasing as we progressed, giving a sign of the bad weather to come, though at the time we were still blessed with clear, sunny skies.

A river like the Nissequogue is a treasure because of its varying habitats. It flows from a fresh water pond and empties into the Long Island Sound, becoming increasingly saline along the way. As a result, you get to see a wide variety of plant and animal life throughout your paddle. Anything from snapping turtles, muskrats, ospreys, red-winged blackbirds, trout, striped bass, bluefish, horseshoe crabs, etc can be seen. It truly is a remarkable place to paddle

Snapping Turtle

Egrets on the river

We soon made our way to the spot where the river widens quite a bit into a vast salt marsh-like area. Thankfully, the thunderstorms had yet to come upon us, although the skies were growing increasingly overcast and the wind continued to pick up. Upon reaching the take-out (the Smithtown boat ramp), Eric decided to get out and stretch his legs while my dad and I headed out into the Sound to poke around a bit. It always amazes me how shallow the mouth of the river gets during low tide. People were walking in water about one half-mile out and were not even getting their shorts wet. Water that makes for good wading does not make for good paddling, though, so we quickly turned around and fought the last bit of the outgoing tide and the wind back to the ramp.