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Oswego, NY to New York City, NY - Sept. 29th to Oct. 19th
Oswego River, Erie Canal, and Hudson River
I can not emphasize enough how happy I was to be off Lake Ontario. The wind and waves were severe all but two of the twelve days I spent on it. The Oswego River was a much welcomed body of water. Even despite traveling against the flow, it is narrow, calm, and flat water. The river is lock and dammed to the point that the current is negligible anyway. The first day, I stopped for the night in Minetto, NY. As I was scoping out camping in a small riverside park, the park's caretaker Carl came along to close up the public bathrooms for the night. Carl was great and asked if I was going to spend the night. I was relieved to get the ok because the park is right on the road and there are houses and businesses all along the other side of the busy road. I would not exactly be squatting very discretely here. Carl joined me in looking for the best spot to put my tent. We had to consider that it was currently pouring rain, windy, cold, and all the park trees were huge, dead, and falling down. Not a good combination. While considering this Carl suggested that I could sleep in the public bathroom if I wanted. They are secure, heated, dry, and freshly cleaned he added. The idea seemed absurd right off but I had to admit that heated and dry peeked my interest. Carl took me for a tour and he was right, they were spotless. There was showers and plenty of floor space a great distance from any toilet. I took that a step further and chose the female bathroom as well. Anyway, it was a first for me but a therma-rest on the floor and roof overhead never seems like a bad thing to me anymore.
The following night, I camped in a park in Pheonix, NY. The only interesting thing there was a homeless dude who came up to befriend me, and my gear. He was admiring my sleeping bag like I admire a Lexus so I slept with one eye open that night.
The following morning I started to head east on The Erie Canal a short ways out of Pheonix. I made my way to Oneida Lake from there and stopped off at Bouy's Restaurant. The Simpson, Saleski, and Jones families whom I had spent the night with on Lake Ontario as mentioned in my last journal, had told me to call them once I had gotten to Bouy's as they all live in the area, (Syracuse area). I did not want to tackle Lake Oneida anyway so I stopped and called. Mark Simpson told me he would come and pick me up in about and hour. After grabbing a bite, I was chatting on the payphone in the lobby with my friend Nancy from Thunder Bay. First Ron arrived at Bouy's and as he passed me in the lobby, he said hi to Yoda and I. Five minutes later Steve arrived and the same. Then Jeff stopped in followed by Mark and I have said hi to all of them by name. At this point Nancy asks, "how long have you been there?" "I just got here" I replied. "And you know the last four people to walk in this restaurant by name?" "Yup I say"
From there, we went to Mark and Julie Simpson's home in Cleveland, NY. Like out at camp, I was welcomed like family by all of these people and their friends. It was lucky for me as well because from this point, the weather turned bad for five days and I was able to weather it out with the Simpsons. I spent the first two days brewing beer with Mark. That Saturday, the whole family got together with about another twenty friends and we took a borrowed school bus on a New York State Finger Lakes wine tasting tour. There seems to be a theme here that appealed to me. I also went wild mushroom picking with their friend Roy. We picked two giant mushrooms the size of basketballs and they were delicious. We also had a birthday party for their daughter Gracie which was lots of people and fun as well. While I was there, Oneida Lake was so vicious, that a bass boat overturned and then the firemen overturned their kodiak while trying to rescue the fishermen. Mark told me that he did not think I should paddled the lake and that he would drive me to the eastern side and let me carry on with the canal from there. I had to agree with him because I had been dreading the twenty-one mile lake that gets bombarded by lake effect weather from Lake Ontario.
From Oneida Lake, I made my way east to Albany, NY. and my start on The Hudson River. Along the way I met and spent time with several sail boaters and yachters. As well, I passed through almost thirty more locks. At least New York state does not charge paddlers for using the locks or for camping on their properties either. The canal was quite nice and the leaves had begun to get colorful as well.
Finally, on October 10th I arrived at Albany and The Hudson River, my last stretch of about 200 miles. I could taste it. I asked the lockmaster at the federal lock which is the last lock heading south to NYC from here if I had to take the tide into account now. He told me that there is a five foot tide here that goes in and out at 6 hour cycles. He also told me that I was at high tide now. I was told I would have to paddle when the tide was receding because incoming would be too hard to paddle against. It was 3:30pm so I did the math. I could follow the tide out until 9:30pm now, sleep until 3:30am and go again etc, etc. I was too tired now to go that far though so I made camp in a park. I set my alarm for 10pm and went to sleep. I wanted to get up to see how far out the tide goes so I keep in mind for future shore camping. I was surprised to see that the water had receded about 40 feet. I figured that the tide would creep back in for the next 6 hours so I went back to sleep. I got up at 2am again but was surprised to see that the water was still out where it was. I got away by 2:30am and the tide was coming in quick at this point. It was no problem to paddle against though so away I went. It was warm out and a full moon also so it was perfect for night paddling. A dense fog hit around 4am and at 5am I came to a boat launch and park with an extremely bright street light in Bethlehem, NY. I decided to sleep again since I wasn't concerned about paddling against the tide anymore. The following day was beautiful, sunny, and 80 degrees. I had not enjoyed the sun in a while. I spent the day there watching and chatting with boaters who were lined up to use the ramp. I decided I would go at high tide that day which did not arrive until 6:30pm. This threw my calculations out but was clearly visible by my more scientific "stick on ramp water level comparison system, S.O.R.W.L.C.S." I paddled for a few hours but never really worried about the tide for the rest of the way.
The following days I stayed in Coeymanns, Catskill, the riverbank, Kingston two nights, Poughkeepsie, Newburgh, and Stony Point. Points of interest were a T.V. projected on a giant oil silo at The Point Bar and Grill in Catskill. Great way to watch the world series. All the boats and yachts can watch the T.V. while out on the Hudson River. I spent two days in Kingston because there was a wind advisory, (70 mph gusts). The Hideaway Marina were kind enough to give me sanctuary so I was not affected. I visited the Bannerman Island Arsenal. Real cool ruins of a castle built in 1908. I have since read on the Internet that it is tick and snake infested. I did not see any snakes but did have to pick a huge grape shaped tick off Yoda when we got paddling again. We also passed West Point Military Training Facility. It is really something to behold as well. It is a giant, fortified castle built into the side of a mountain. I don't know if Black Hawk Helicopters always protect it or if it was just because of a football game going on there but it was cool when a chopper came swooping down to river level to check me out as I passed. From there, I paddled through a freeway of yachts, one had a helicopter and two Suburbans all matching paint on the deck. I pulled out for the last time just before the Tappan Zee Bridge.
I reluctantly decided to end my journey at this point. I was getting numerous warnings not to venture into the Upper Bay of New York. There is horrendous boat traffic. The tidal currents are dangerous. And there could be problems finding spots to put a tent. On top of these things, I had made arrangement to get picked up and to stay with Brent and Tammy Turk. Brent is an old friend of mine from Thunder Bay who now lives in Rochelle Park, NJ. It was more convenient to get picked up now rather than further not to mention on a Sunday which it was. To top things off, the weather was not co-operating and it was cold, windy, and rainy of coarse. I had pretty much had enough I'm not afraid to add.
Anyway, the following weekend, Brent & Tammy drove me down to the Statue of Liberty and we took some pictures with Yoda and the kayak. When I looked out over Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Jersey City, and Bayonne, I knew that I had made the right decision about not paddling there without knowing exactly where I was going to stop.
I had also been in negotiations with a producer and talent coordinator for the Late Show with David Letterman. I figured they would be interested in the fact that I had paddled from Paul Shaffer's home town of Thunder Bay to come see the show, (a fib). I thought it would be cool to end the trip by getting introduced in the audience as the crazy dude who had paddled here 2500 miles from T.Bay. Paul's assistant informed us that they were not interested in acknowledging me publicly but they would try to get me a ticket to see the taping.
Anyway, I'm disappointed but what can you do. It did not help my anticlimactic wave of depression I seem to get when finished my trips. Last year, I figured it was due to my non-completion that I felt so down. I have the same sinking feelings of anxiety again this year though. For almost five months I focused on finishing and now that I have, it just seems like a blur that had no point. I know it is purely psychological but it is interestingly disconcerting. When I was enroute, all I thought was why everyone would not want to try something similar. Now, all I think is why would anyone want to be cold, hungry, tired, and lonely for half a year...what is the point? Sure, I'm thinner and have a few more muscles but there are many easier ways to accomplish that. I suppose this is the value of journals. I need to reflect more, remember all the people, all the sights. Writing about my trips might provide me with the desired result. My lack of satisfaction with anything is really troublesome.
From NYC, my plan is to go to Mexico for a bit. I have not decided how I will get there yet. I'm torn between cycling or just jumping on a plane or bus. I would rather cycle but am concerned about the weather for the next couple of weeks until I can get south enough. Thankfully Brent and Tammy are generous enough to have invited me to stay as long as I need to figure it out. I also have to figure out what to do about my kayak and gear. If I do start cycling, I suppose I will pass along anything of interest to you all. I will also journal my cycling trip back to Thunder Bay from Mexico this spring as well.
I can be reached this week at 201-843-0876. Thanks again to all who helped me. When I publish my book, I will acknowledge everyone for their help and support there...I promise!!
Until then, cheers, d.
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