Cove Harbor, Holly Pond and Noroton River Ct Dec 2012

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My plan was to  go for a paddle on the Housatonic- launching at Indian Well State Park. After arriving there, I realized that the park (and boat ramp) was closed for the winter. Faced with a long drag (and remembering that my last kayak was holed though too much dragging) , I decided to head back along Merritt Parkway. 

Housatonic River  at Indian Well State Park 

In an effort to avoid a traffic jam, I headed down towards I95 and noted that there was a river and pond there. I drove down to Cove Island Park and put in at the boat ramp, paddling through the marina to the pond, rather than paddling out into  the Sound. There was a bit of wind - probably around 10-15 MPH and it was cold (around the freezing mark).

At this point my phone ran out of juice  so I wasn't able to check the tides, although I recalled that closer to NY, the tide would be falling at this time. 

After about  45 minutes poking around the pond, I headed up towards the Noroton River and was surprised to feel my paddle scrape on something hard. I looked down and discovered there was about 18"  of water under me. The last thing I wanted was to get stranded out in the open in such freezing weather, with the possibility of hypothermia if I had to walk out through water. 
That being the case I turned around and paddled back pretty quickly to the marina, where I was surprised to hear rushing water under the bridge that  I had passed under on the way out. A closer look showed me that the water level had dropped considerably, and there were rocks between me and the take out. 
I decided to head for the shore at the one place near the marina that was not surrounded by 8 foot high fences and pull out there. It meant dragging the kayak and me over a three foot stone wall, but that was easy. After that, a shortish walk back to the car  saw me dragging the kayak across a fairly short distance and heading back home. It had turned into a lovely day-blue sky, sunny and  probably 3 or 4 degrees above freezing; all in all a nice day out. 

Boat Ramp

Holly Pond

Noroton River 

Holly Pond

Holly Pond 

Impassable return to the marina

Holly Pond 

Delaware Raritan Canal Landing Lane - Demott Lane Dec 23rd 2012

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Finally back in the good old US of A and happy to get a chance to go for a paddle  I decided I should try and find the start of the canal, having paddled it so many times. It is actually the end of the canal of course, as it runs from the Delaware to the Raritan. 

This spot was a good find, as I realized that this can be a two way paddle on different waterways. Just like one can do further up stream, near Washington's Crossing, you can paddle up the canal and drag the kayak over the bank to paddle back downstream on the River (in this case the Raritan) . I didn't do it last week because I know there are several hazards on the Raritan, and I wanted to check that there were none on this stretch.  The  Raritan Riverkeeper Guide to access points is the reference for this, and I have since see that that section is perfect for the turn around paddle.

Launch at Landing Lane- Parking is available up on the road by the traffic lights 

Looking across the canal to the Raritan in the background 

A nice little place on the canal

Demott Lane - turn around and boat access point 

Another shot of the canal with Raritan River in the background 

It is clear how how much higher the canal is than the river. In this spot, right at the end of the canal, water spills over into the river.