Today’s Paddle

Brownski · Jun 18, 2023

Big bad Lake Welch. Well, not that big but one of the bigger lakes in Harriman. And not bad in any way, very very tame actually.

Lake Welch Beach is pretty big

In case anybody was curious what that shit is

First dam of the day

Under the road, to access the back bowl

There is an otter in that picture. It didn’t come out great. It’s not all that often you see an otter in this area. Beaver are way more common and this is beaver territory for sure but this one stuck its head way up high out of the water to check me out and didn’t dive until I started getting close. Then it popped up again, further away, to take another look at me. Beaver never do that.

By my count there are seven turtles in this pic. They don’t let you get real close either.

This one didn’t spook though

All the way back away from the road, I found the second dam of the day

I wasn’t up for portaging over to explore further. The beaver pond is probably about a foot and a half or maybe two feet higher than the lake.

Back through to the main part of the lake

I forgot to start it until after I was out on the water. And it recorded it as a walk instead of a paddle.

Not sure how it came up with 144 steps or 50 feet of vert.

tirolski · Jun 18, 2023

Brownski said:
In case anybody was curious what that shit is (Pic of yellow algae control boom & sign)

All the way back away from the road, I found the second dam of the day...
The beaver pond is probably about a foot and a half or maybe two feet higher than the lake.

That beaver dam allows nutrients to settle out before going into the lake. Also can help with controlling algae in the bigger lake.

Brownski · Jul 2, 2023

Paddled Lake Copake yesterday and went back to Tiorati today. Nothing major but good workouts.

Copake is a vacation homes, waterskiing, motorboat kind o& place.

Tiorati is no gas motors though you see the occasional electric. It’s not lined with vacation homes but there ar3 a few camps and campsites. I did a more thorough circumnavigation than last time I was here - got into most of the nooks and crannies.

jasonwx · Jul 3, 2023

Mr Brown
I have a inflatable kayak
Are they allowed in Harriman ?

tirolski · Jul 3, 2023

Brownski said:
Paddled Lake Copake yesterday and went back to Tiorati today. Nothing major but good workouts.

Copake is a vacation homes, waterskiing, motorboat kind o& place.

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Tiorati is no gas motors though you see the occasional electric. It’s not lined with vacation homes but there ar3 a few camps and campsites. I did a more thorough circumnavigation than last time I was here - got into most of the nooks and crannies.

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Those Hobie Revolutions are fun, in the 2nd pic. Ya don’t have to paddle neither.
I wanna catch a king salmon with mine someday. Has a little sail too.

Brownski · Jul 3, 2023

jasonwx said:
Mr Brown
I have a inflatable kayak
Are they allowed in Harriman ?

Yes
See them all the time

https://parks.ny.gov/documents/parks/HarrimanPalisadesBoatingInformation.pdf

Brownski · Jul 3, 2023

tirolski said:
Those Hobie Revolutions are fun, in the 2nd pic. Ya don’t have to paddle neither.
I wanna catch a king salmon with mine someday. Has a little sail too.

They’re really expensive though. I would not leave them out like that if it were me. They’re the perfect storm of easily stolen and valuable enough to risk it sitting right on the water like that.

tirolski · Jul 3, 2023

Brownski said:
They’re really expensive though. I would not leave them out like that if it were me. They’re the perfect storm of easily stolen and valuable enough to risk it sitting right on the water like that.

Folks forgot to tie up my 1st “normal” yak well enough, then a storm came by.
We went around looking for it where it coulda been blown to and never saw it again.
I got it as a “prize” for being a long time worker bee. It was a sit on top, before the stand up paddle boards were a thingy

Brownski · Jul 4, 2023

I wasn’t planning on anything big today. I thought I’d go back to Lake Welch but there was a line of cars trying to get to the beach that stretched all the way around the lake to the dam. It would have taken forever to reach the paddlers’ parking so I did a three point turn and drove back down into Stony Point to get back on the Palisades. Exit 16 that would have taken me up to Lake Tiorati was actually closed at the Parkway. I thought about driving around the northern end of the park and down Seven Lakes Drive to Sebago but I figured they’d be charging to park there today and my wife had our Empire Pass so I just kept going north to the Bear Mountain Bridge.

I spotted this monster as I crossed. The picture doesn’t it justice- I think that’s a total of ten barges lashed together. I assume they’re empty and being brought north to get filled with gravel or asphalt or whatever. I’d be a good tugboat captain.

So I settled on the Hudson from Cold Sprig. Familiar spot, easy launch.

I put in about an hour before high tide so I figured I’d paddle south around Constitution Island and then see what presented itself next.

Somebody stuck a flag in the river.

As I got closer to the island, the tug boat I’d seen from the bridge showed up. It was even more impressive from the water.

The water was rough down here with all kinds of tree trunks and branches and bits of old docks or piling floating around- typical of narrow parts of the river at high tide. When the wake from the barges reached me, it was impressive.

Constitution Island. I guess I’ll have to look up what that used to be.

Always a couple trains zipping by when you paddle here. The east side of the river has passenger trains.

There’s an entrance to Constitution Marsh under the tracks down here but I didn’t have high hopes for reaching it while I could still fit underneath. The marsh is cool but you have to time it perfectly so that there’s enough water to paddle through but not enough to block you from getting in and out. I could feel the current trying to suck me under the tracks here.

This is all right across the river from West Point

It was getting pretty hot out at this point. I paddled out into the middle of the river to catch a breeze and turned back north.

I paddled through a bunch more debris and some pretty impressive tidal turbulence as I went back through the narrow part next to the island but I didn’t want to take my hand off the paddle to get a picture. I just kept on going north out in the middle, enjoying the breeze. The tide had crested and was going south by the time I reached Cold Spring again. I paddled against the current to keep going. No real plan.

Freight trains on the west side

I didn’t quite have it in me to make it up to Bannerman Castle today but I got close.

This is part of the aqueduct system that brings water from the Catskills down to the city.

Turning around had upside and downside. Of course paddling with the tide is way easier but it also negated the light breeze that was blowing out of the north. Without the little bit of wind in my face, it felt hot again.

Here’s a good example of the floaters that are common at high tide. No problem for me but I’d hate to hit it with a jet ski.