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September 2017
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So, I love boating on the Hudson (and beyond).
We’ve spent a fair amount of time way out on the
river, in deep, power-boat accessible water. Let’s
talk about a recent trip that not only gets us out
a ways on the Hudson, but also around a notable
Hudson “point”, then under a low Metro North
bridge and then up the creek.
“Hey, whaddayah say we put in at Scenic Hudson’s
Foundry Dock Park in Beacon and scootch over
to and around Dennings Point and up the Fishkill
Creek to the old hat factory in Madam Brett Park???”
Saturday, June 24th, was another blustery day—
seems like there had been a lot more of them than
“normal” lately—but I had hoped the bay/cove
south of the put-in was in the lee of the wind, and
we would only have to deal with rough water along
the west shore of the point, where we could stay
close in. Nope: the wind was blasting just about
straight out of the west: big rollers and nasty white
caps. We’d dealt with worse, but this was supposed
to be all about fun, not survival. We headed back
home, and Kath had a brainstorm: let’s leave the
boat on the rack and try to get out early the next
morning, when the winds, and the river, would
more likely be calm.
Well, surprise surprise, we didn’t get out as early
as we used to in the old days, but the river was
calm, and, empty. As seems to often be the case
lately we were the only boat out there—of any
kind—for two-plus hours, on a beautiful blue-
sky Sunday morning. I asked Kath if she’d like to
swing around the shoreline, or head across the
bay right for the point. We took a bearing on the
shore of the point, and paddled smoothly across
(10-/20-/50-foot???) deep open water.
It’s a nice paddle close-in to the west shore of
the point. And, one heck of a nice hike on the
trail that swings around the point: we’ve often
hiked this trail, and it was nice to look at familiar
landmarks from water level. When we reached the
point, I was surprised from this perspective that
it appeared as if Bannerman’s (ummm, Pollepel
“Green Stuff ”, probably “invasive”, but there was a clearly defined
channel leading to the railroad bridge and the mouth of Fishkill Creek.