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July - August 2018 63 boatingonthehudson.com
per mile, whereas the Class V whitewater in the Grand Canyon drops “only”
20 to 30 feet per mile: hmmmm, so much for my memory of this trip!!!). I do
recall our guide was an “old timer”: our Grand Canyon and Urabamba guides
were pretty much—both male and female—young “hot shots”. He did spin us
around in one of the particularly nasty tt always taking the tides and the wind
into consideration: ideally with the current, tide, and wind in our favor (but not
always...). It was complicated: sometimes we took two cars, sometimes relied
on the kindness of relatives and friends to shuttle us. Here’s a list of the “River
Towns” we put in/took out from Albany to Yonkers (since we live on the east
side of the Hudson, we favored it): Schodack Island State Park, Coxsackie,
Hudson, Catskill, Saugerties, Kingston, Norrie Point, Poughkeepsie, Chelsea/
New Hamburg, Cold Spring/Garrison, Peekskill, Buchanan (Lent’s Cove)/
Verplanck, Croton/Ossining, and Tarrytown. Whadda journey!!!
OK, lets go back to 9:30 AM, Yonkers, July 2004: I don’t recall how we found
the boat launch in Yonkers (except that we must have canoed down to it from
Tarrytown(???)), but my recollection is the big parking lot was empty and very
run-down and decrepit.
I also don’t recall much about the Yonkers waterfront, but recall it was a
fine Summer’s day, and the river was wonderfully smooth and calm. For this
reason, Tim and I took off our PFD’s (Personal Floatation Devices, aka “Life
Jackets”). Looking back, I find this astonishing: nowadays we never set out
without PFD’s, even on White Pond when it is totally windless and placid, and
especially on the Hudson. Live And Learn...
We were concerned about the currents near Spuyten Duyvil, where the
East River joins the Hudson, but they were not a problem at the time of day
we paddled past. The next Impossible To Ignore landmark was the George
Washington Bridge, and it was a huge milestone for Kathy and I on our long,
long journey from the Adirondacks. We pulled in at a small Hudson River beach
just below the bridge, and took a break at an idyllically-located picnic bench.
Then it was down along Manhattan (!!!), and the walkers and cyclists enjoying
Riverside Park along the Henry Hudson Parkway. Next landmark/photo op was
Grant’s Tomb, and before we knew it there was the 79th Street Boat Basin, and,
moored outside the Basin— because it wouldn’t fit inside—was, yikes, the 370-
foot Le Grand Bleu, Russian mega-billionaire Evgeny Markovich Schvidler’s
“Look At Me Toy”.
Our canoes did fit inside the Basin, and we paddled up to the main dock as
if we owned the place... OK, we had to get back to the Subaru. Kath and Tim
lounged at the Basin, watching crew members from Le Grande being shuttled
back and forth to shop in Manhattan (and the Clearwater cruise by), and I went
out to the streets and hailed a cab to Grand Central, just like I knew what I was
doing. The cabbie asked what my story was, and when I told him he said “I knew
you were a bit different.”
I fairly easily found a train to Yonkers, and worked out a taxi (a BIG old Ford
(I think???) station wagon, driven by a big, friendly black woman. She brought
me right to the Subaru (I had hoped it would be stolen: the 1998 standard
shift Legacy wagon was , for whatever reasons, not a favorite of mine) and I
scootched down to the Boat Basin, pulled in, and parked alongside signs that
said PARKING FOR BOAT OWNERS ONLY. I was a boat owner. What a day,
what an adventure. An aside: that six-mile stretch from Riparius to The Glen is
still hanging over us: maybe this year...
Get in touch with Ralph at
We have it all in 2018...