Kayak Northeast: Cove Harbor, Holly Pond and Noroton River Ct Dec 2012

View Cove Harbor - Noroton Rive Ct Dec 28th 2012 in a larger map

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.