Hyde Park, NY to Peekskill,NY

This section of the Paddle was to be a shakedown cruise to see how all the equipment and me worked together on the water. From the Brunton SolarRoll that keeps the backup iPhone batteries up to snuff, to 8 liters of hydration bladders in interior mount cockpit bags, to the 1 meter Pacific Action Sail Kit control lines being tethered to the Northwater Deck Bag which served as a hydration bladder and ProBar snack station.

The Impex Force 4 was loacded to the gills. I really didn’t think that I was packing that heavy but between a Marmot Tent, squashed Big Agnes down bag, kitchen stuff, paddle clothing, terrestrial clothing, fuel cannisters, first aid and gear aid kits, 6 days supply of food, etc. it did not matter that the boat was the lightest that Impex makes. I had, quite effectively made a streamlined freighter.

Now weight aside, I was surprised that it trimmed out quite neatly in the water, and while I could feel the extra inertia on turns using a sweep stroke it still heeled stablely and would skid or carve a turn quite well. I don’t think that I’ll be teaching technique at the Tune-Ups with the kayak quite that laden though.

To take advantage of as much tidal influence as possible Dorothy accompanied me to the Boathouse before sun-up to finish preparations. I got underway at 07:15 with some additional company in the way of Neil and Deb to see me off. Thank you guys, that was really nice. Rumor has it that the three of them went out for an extended breakfast while I was burning off the Starbucks on the water.

The conditions were perfectly placid which was fine as the rising sun started to show the full color of the river bank’s foliage. About 45 minutes down river the sun behind some cirrus clouds treated me to a prismatic ice crystal rainbow high in the sky.

One of the enjoyable aspects of this time of year is the lack of any other motor boats on this part of the river. Just the sound of birds and the gurgle of the little rooster tail behind the kayak to get me into the sightseeing mood.

Approaching the City of Poughkeepsie a few pedestrians on the Walkway over the Hudson peered over the railing to watch as I passed under the remade Poughkeepsie Rail Bridge.

The lines of the Mid Hudson Bridge against the fall colors made for a particularly pretty post card like picture.

With all the rain that we had had the day before I thought that I might be able to poke into the plunge pool of Buttermilk Falls in Milton, NY. Just enough water was under the bridge to poke in enough to snap a picture of the base of the falls. Further up the stream spreads across a broad rock face and cascades down a 75-80 degree slope to make for a sheet of whitewater bouncing down some 100 feet. Quite pretty but treat the property with respect. The folks at the Buttermilk Falls Inn are good people and a gorgeous place to stay at.

I stayed along the west side of the River until Roseton Powerplant and crossed near Chelsea so as to continue past Beacon Harbor with a quick stop at Denning’s Point before continuing on Bannerman’s Castle on Pollepel Island. The Pollepel was motoring out from Newburgh across the river and was barely going faster than me. Ha! Paddle power vs Prop Power!

Bannerman's - East Face

Just after Bannerman’s my additional battery pack on my iPhone was failing and power had dropped to under 20%. I didn’t want to have the phone go dead so I stopped the MotionX GPS program at 23 miles but still had another 15 or so to go, so there’s a gap for a bit as Dorothy mentioned in one of her posts. I’m not going to mention the maker of the battery pack as they are going to proportedly make good on their product as it wasn’t an inexpensive bit of gear that I had gotten two of. We’ll see how that goes before I sing the praises of slam the product.

Happy to say that I got a break all the way to Cold Spring. The wind kicked in in a favorable direction so I could pop the Pacific Action Sail on tethered to the front of the kayak. Now it wasn’t a screaming wind that allowed me to simply use my paddle as a rudder and zoom along but the maybe 20% boost was appreciated as I was able to slow down my cadence and let the wind help.

Breakneck Ridge

Breakneck Ridge

Storm King

Storm King

Speaking of cadence. Begining in May I’m usually working 60+ to 80 hours a week so my own paddling is usually an hour early in the AM before I open the Showroom. Now mind you I’m often on the water 5 days a week and sometimes more but this is the first long distance paddle where I didn’t have time constraints on me other than daylight. How does this relate to cadence? My usual paddles are typically 10 minute miles or a touch faster for an hour so throtling my speed down to a more efficient 4.5 mph was actually a difficult habitual cadence to match. Paddle, pause, look at the scenery, feel the boat come off speed, paddle, pause look at the scenerey on the other side rather than paddle, peak power, paddle peak power, yadayadayada. For the distances I’m looking to cover not burning myself out is a conscious task.

Just north of Little Stony Point my phone rang. It was Dean MacGeorge. He had called me earlier to see where I was on the water as he thought he’d meet up with me a bit. I redesvouzed with him just south of Little Stony Point where he paddled with me back to Foundry Dock Cove in Cold Spring at about 13:15. Unfortunately Dean’s idea of paddling was interupted by need to feed my face for about 45 minutes. Go figure, kayaking’s hard work! Good thing it’s fun.

At the Foundary Dock, Dorothy was waiting to meet me as I landed.

Dorothy's on the left

I think I made better time than she anticipated. With all the leaf peepers out I probably made better time paddling than she did driving which turned out to almost be the case on the second half of the day.

After refueling, I mean lunching, Dean joined me for a bit going around Constitution Island

Dean off Foundry Cove

and down to West Point Military Academy.

Remains of Fort Constitution

West Point from Garrison, NY

Dean departed at this point as he had plans for the afternoon which left me paddling through a picturesque but tough section of the river as the tide had definitely turned against me. Being that my gps program was of a this point I can guestimate that I was doing 3mph against the current because the Bear Mountain Bridge just didn’t seem to want to get any closer. It finally did and after a call from Dorothy past when I got past the bridge the going got a bit easier as high tide was approaching and the flood would end shortly.

Trying to catch some wind

Bear Mountain Bridge from the North

Tomorrow’s section from Peekskill, NY to Alpine, NJ probably will take more doing as the timing of the tides won’t allow for as long of a ride on the ebb as today. Weather’s supposed to be like today though so I can’t complain too much.

See you on the water,

Marshall