Safety Kayaking the Hudson River Swims

Early this summer, Ripitz reached out to me about the Newburgh to Beacon Swim. He was swimming to help raise money for The River Pool in Beacon. He asked if I’d be interested in volunteering as a kayak safety escort. I thought it was a cool idea so, once I’d checked that my schedule was open. “Where do I sign up?” Rip directed me to their website.

Long Dock Park
Long Dock Park

Before the day of the swim the organizers had a meeting which I joined via Zoom. They explained things thoroughly. Our job was to keep an eye on the swimmers, provide something for them to grab onto if they needed to rest and call in a jet ski or motorboat if somebody needed to come out of the water.

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The Paddle of Big Sandy Creek

The Battle of Big Sandy Creek occurred on May 29th 1814 between British and American forces during the War of 1812. It was an American victory that would prove inconsequential as the British retained control of the Great Lakes.

The Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1812.
Lossing, Benson (1868). The Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1812. Harper & Brothers

The Paddle of Big Sandy Creek occurred last weekend and was significantly less violent. Farah and I had been scoping out beaches and kayaking spots along Lake Ontario when we learned of Big Sandy Creek.

Located within the Lakeview Wildlife Management area, the paddle is a 4 mile out-and-back that takes paddlers past Goose Pond and out to the sandy beaches along Lake Ontario. It is the same route used in the battle during The War of 1812.

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Monksville Reservoir Kayaking

Monksville Reservoir in Ringwood NJ is right in my backyard, but I’d never heard of it until the other day. Somebody saw my kayak on top of my car and struck up a conversation on paddling. When we were done discussing what we liked about our boats, we shifted to where we paddle and he said he always goes to Monksville.

Monksville Reservoir boat launch

Huh, really, where is that? I punched it into Apple Maps and realized I’d driven over it many times on my way to Mountain Creek Ski area. It looked like an cool spot so I went ahead and pencilled it into my list of stuff to do on my week off. So I looked up the stats.

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