Passaic Dec 29th 2011

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A freezing Day, well below zero C. Many layers and toe and hand warmers made the paddle possible. Put in at Eacgle Rock Rd and headed upriver (south) until  I reached Rte 10 Much water, with lagoons and backwaters all along the  outside of the channel.

Saw:  A red tailed hawk, and a bunch of wild turkeys. Big birds and around a score of them. 

Dec 30th 2011 Passaic River Rte 510

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Continuing on my exploration of the Passaic, I put in at Rte 510 and headed south (upstream). There is such a lot of water, complete lakes, which on Google sat pics, show up as grassy areas. So expansive was the water, that I paddled way off of the river channel and ended up at a dead end. I checked on the GPS,  and I was way off course. Even after I turned around and headed back to the channel, I could not make out the southward channel.  As it was, I was not far from yesterday's paddle so I turned around and headed downriver until I gto the Rte 10  Bridge,which was where I had turned around yesterday. I have now completed that section of the river. 
It was much milder today, around 8-9 degrees C. I had one less layer of clothing on top, and manged to complete the paddle without major freezing of extremities. 
I was on the water for about 3 hours. 

Launch

Rte 510 Bridge

Cedar Hill Country Club

Little wildlife, duck and geese; that's it. 

Pompton River NJ Dec 26th 2011

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A cool day.  Around  5- 7 degrees C ( with a steady wind of 15 mph (gusts up to 25-30 mph) .
Put in at the same launch site from yesterday at Two Bridges Rd.  A pleasant paddle with a steady strong flow. Not much time to take photos. Any time I stopped, I was floating backwards within a handful of seconds. It was not too strong, and provided me with my favorite type of paddling work out. It is a good sized river at this location. I had not expected it to be so wide. 
No mammals, apart form a cat and various squirrels.
I did manage to identify a cute small bird - a tufted titmouse. There was a small group ( 4-5)  hopping around on the ground of the wood, and  flying up into trees. 
2.5 hours upstream and 1.6 hours to return.

Wanaque Pumping Station

I was surprised to see this island with habitation ( from the west side) - There are 6 houses on the island and no bridge.

Houses on the river

You can see the flood water level on the screen windows at the front of the house.

Boontown Turnpike 

Wood Duck 

Railway bridge - At the turn around

One of the locals 

Flood debris under bridge 

Houses on island ( east side)

The island with from the west side -On the return journey

The punt with winches for getting to and from the island.

Flooded and burned 

View Passaic River Dec 25th 2011 in a larger map


Christmas Day 2011. Moderately cold = around 0C.  Light winds.
Put in at the 2nd of the two bridges I came to on Two Bridges Rd. Fairfield NJ.
There was no ramp, just a track and a steepish bank- The water is still relatively high, but the backwaters and lagoons are starting to freeze over. 

The winter season is starting to grow on me. Where once everything looked dead to me , now it just looks like winter . I like that I can see the actually see the topography; the lay of the land.

The backwaters are beginning to ice up.

Even stone chooks get me hankering after them. Life without them is not ideal(real ones that is, not stone ones)  .

One of many small tributaries.

Housing that has seen better days. This section of houses on the river bank are very  low; I imagine that they sustained extensive flood damage in the wake of Irene and subsequent flooding. 

This cute little cabin 

A work in progress.

I fixer-upper that didn't quite get fixed upped.

One of the two bridges at Two Bridges Rd. You can get an idea of the flood height by the debris .

The other...

The launch site is just beyond the bridge on the left/ 

There was some  animal action; I saw a  bunch of deer. Also a red- bellied woodpecker, female,  looking through the tree bark for goodies. A belted kingfisher swooped down and grab a small fish from the water; that nice to see. A turkey vulture was the only raptor seen.  There was quite  an amount of small bird action, but despite the lack of foliage, my abysmal knowledge of North American birds, and their flightiness,  left me  wondering what they all were. 
The Passaic is New Jersey's most polluted river. Up stream here, it actually looks pretty good...would not drink the water though.