Lower Rondout Creek

Planned ahead so I was able to hop off the thruway on my way home from Albany. Put into Rondout creek for a little afternoon paddle. I planned on launching from Kingston but it turned out they had an Irish festival happening where I needed to park. I found a spot to launch from the other side of the creek in Esopus. Rondout creek is fascinating to me because it used to be part of the Delaware & Hudson canal in the nineteenth century when Kingston was a much bigger deal then it is now.




The Rondout has tons- absolutely tons- of boat traffic. There are marinas on the north side of the creek almost all the way from the Hudson River at Kingston up to the first dam/ former lock site. It's a no wake zone for the most part so all the boaters didn't really bother me.




Yup. That's a float plane.




Where there isn't a marina, there's generally some sort of industrial site. The south side of the creek is a little prettier to look at; still lots of houses and camps and things though.




The D&H canal had a bunch of locks on it in order to take barge traffic up and over the hills so it could follow the Walkill and then the Neversink (I think) on down to the Delaware River. I'm pretty sure this is the remains of the first dam and lock, not much to look at now.





It was a good little paddle. I enjoyed getting back into my old boat which is usually assigned to my son lately. We call it the "bomb pop".



Whoever put this rope swing up has a serious set of balls. Where it's tied off must be thirty feet up.

Big family reunion/graduation celebration up in Orange County a week or so ago. We had two cars going anyway so I put a kayak up on top of my truck and afterward took off on my own to explore the next section of the Rondout, upstream from where I paddled last year.





I paddled upstream from the put-in first. I got rained on a bit but that keeps the crowds away so all good. There were some kids swimming and maybe two or three other paddlers but mostly I had the whole place to myself. After a while I turned around and made my way back past my launch point.



I saw a couple of beaver and a bald eagle (too far away for a pic). I've read that river otters are supposed to be staging a comeback in NyS but I haven't seen one yet, keeping an eye out though.



Upstate, upstate, upstate, am I right? Gotta love it.



I made it down to just above the remains of the first lock on the old D&H canal. I could feel the water pulling me toward it so I didn't get too close.