Paddling Long Island and New York City. Kevin Stiegelmaier
href="#u21e3782d-5af9-5e21-a8a7-c0ea2d0fabed">47 Jamaica Bay
INTRODUCTION
USING THIS GUIDE
This guidebook provides all the essential information you need to plan the paddling routes described. For each route you will learn about the waterway’s location, size, history, and typical wildlife. A locator map, trip description, and at-a-glance key information will come in handy from start to finish on each paddling trip. GPS coordinates for put-ins, take-outs, and tide stations, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) quadrangles, trip length, optimal paddling conditions, mean monthly water temperatures (where available), shuttle directions, and tide information are among the many crucial pieces of information included.
THE MAPS
Use the overview map on the inside front cover to find the exact locations of each paddle’s put-in/take-out. Each paddle’s number appears on the overview map, on the map key facing the overview map, and in the table of contents.
This book is divided into three regional sections—Suffolk County, Nassau County, and New York City—and prefacing each section is an overview map of that region. The regional map provides more detail than the overview map, bringing you closer to the hike.
Detailed maps show the most common and convenient put-ins/take-outs, and they identify points of interest such as bridges, parks, side channels, islands, and marinas. While these maps are extremely helpful in navigating each body of water, I recommend using them in tandem with more-detailed maps. Examples include DeLorme’s state-by-state Atlas & Gazetteer series (delorme.com) and true nautical charts printed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (nauticalcharts.noaa.gov). Such charts are also stocked at most boating-supply stores, offered as free printable booklets (ocsdata.ncd.noaa.gov/BookletChart), and available by subscription at Trails.com.
A key to the symbols found on all maps appears on the inside back cover.
RUN PROFILES EXPLAINED
Each paddle trip’s profile includes the following elements:
These introductory remarks typically cover the body of water’s most common put-in and take-out spots; points of interest along the way; the history of the waterway and its surrounding areas; flora and fauna that typically can be observed from a kayak throughout the year; and other features such as beaches, inlets, marinas and mooring fields, portages, rest spots, and side trips.
Here, nine specifics are cited for each route: its trip level, distance, time, navigable months, potential hazards, number of portages, easy-to-difficult rescue access, tidal conditions, and scenery rating.
Trip level indicates expected paddling difficulty based on possible wind strength, wave size, current speed, and other variables that take place on open water. In this guide, a rating system on a scale of 1–5, developed by members of Long Island Paddlers, determines the levels shown with each entry:
Level 1 indicates a trip on protected waters with few, if any, waves; light to no breeze (less than 10 mph); and no current.
Level 2 alerts you to stronger winds (10–15 mph), waves of up to 2 feet, and a slight current.
Level 3 signals that 2- to 3-foot waves are likely, as are winds up to 20 mph, currents of 3–4 knots, and potential open-water crossings of up to 5 miles long.
Level 4 trips may have longer crossings of up to 10 miles long, currents stronger than 4 knots, 3-foot (or higher) swells, winds up to 20 mph, and difficult landing conditions.
Level 5 denotes open-water crossings of potentially more than 10 miles, large swells, challenging surf conditions, strong currents with turbulence, and waves higher than 4 feet. Winds may be quite strong, and landings could be very difficult.
The Long Island Paddlers rating system also acknowledges trip durations and distances, using a letter between A and D following the level number:
A indicates a short trip, less than 3 hours and 6 miles long.
B denotes a trip lasting 3–5 hours and running 6–10 miles long.
C trips last 5–6 hours and run 10–15 miles, with few places to stop and rest.
D trips require more than 6 hours of paddling and run more than 15 miles, with very few landing spots.
Distance is listed in miles, from put-in to take-out. The distances of side trips, optional paddles, and alternative put-ins or take-outs are addressed in the Description. The average time for each trip is listed in hours. These times are meant only as guidelines, however, and can change depending on how many breaks, lunch stops, or photo opportunities you take. Navigable months lets you know when conditions are typically and most consistently best for paddling a given body of water. (Of course, many places can be paddled at times other than those listed.)
Hazards comprise such factors as open-water crossings, boat traffic, tidal currents, dams, strainers, deadfall, and waterfalls. Most of these trips require no portages, but where applicable the number of them needed is listed in the Key Info.
Ease of rescue access is listed according to this scale: Easy (rescues can be accomplished throughout an entire trip), Limited (rescues can be accomplished at a small number of points during a trip), or Difficult (rescues can rarely be accomplished, if at all, throughout a trip).
Tidal conditions refers to the period of time before or after high tide when conditions are best for paddling that route (see for an in-depth discussion of tides). However, paddlers need not limit themselves to the time spans given, as many bodies of water are at least partially navigable throughout all tidal phases. The paddle route’s nearest tide station, or sea-level gauge, is listed with its latitude and longitude data, along with the put-in and take-out, in the GPS Coordinates box (see next section).
The last item in the Key Info section, scenery is rated on the following scale:
A Beautiful, mostly pristine areas surround the water.
B The area is developed, though still scenic.
C The area is significantly developed.
D The area is extremely overdeveloped and possibly polluted, and has been stripped of its natural beauty.
The coordinates of the put-in and take-out spots for each paddle, along with the coordinates for the nearest tide station (where applicable), are provided in latitude–longitude