The effort was so successful in its inaugural summer that other Hudson River communities, including Saugerties, have already been borrowing the harvesting machine. You can view a slide show about Chester at https://esopuslibrary.org/chestercuttingdoc.pdf.
Another thing that you ought to do online, while you’re waiting for the water to get warm enough for paddling (don’t be deceived by balmy days — you could still die of hypothermia pretty fast if you fell in at this time of year) is to sign up for the Kingston Paddle Pals’ listserv at https://groups.yahoo.com/group/KingstonPaddlePals. This community-based group not only provides much of the volunteer labor to run Chester, but has also organized and led many of the kayaking excursions that marked the Esopus bicentennial. The online forum is a gold mine of information about where to go in the mid-Hudson and beyond for your paddling pleasure. Group members announce excursions, long-planned or impromptu, on a regular basis. Although its 2012 newsletter has not yet been finalized, the group has already announced that, beginning May 26, Kingston Paddle Pals will organize a regular Saturday paddle shoving off at 10 a.m. from Sleightsburg Launch.
Ah, Sleightsburg: my favorite put-in. That’s the boat ramp next to the big tanks with the murals painted on them, across from the Hudson River Maritime Museum in Kingston’s Rondout. The Rondout Creek, the boundary line between the two communities, is the most fun place to start a paddle that I know of in these parts. There’s a decent-sized parking lot and a short carry to the concrete ramp. Launching a kayak here is easy if you don’t mind wading in a bit. Keep a wary eye out for powerboat owners backing their trailers down the ramp.
Hang a louie off the boat ramp and you’ll be heading up the Rondout in the general direction of St. Remy and Eddyville, though that’s a bit of a haul. Aside from the wakes of motorboats, the water is gentle most of the year, and it’s the way to go if you’re not yet entirely confident in a kayak. There’s plenty of marine archaeology to see along the way, as far as you care to go: crumbling wrecks of abandoned piers and half-sunken barges. Families of ducks and geese — the original Kingston paddle pals — will likely keep you company part of the way.
If the weather is mild and the tide cooperating, you have the right kind of boat and gear, and you’re experienced enough a kayaker to venture into the challenging waters of the Hudson, you can hang a reggie instead and head downstream toward the mouth of the Rondout. You can cross over, swing around the Rondout Lighthouse to turn upstream on the Hudson toward Kingston Point Park, where there are places to beach your boat for a nice picnic lunch with a river view. From one of those shoreline rest stops I recently watched a bald eagle dive into the shallow bay behind the lighthouse and flap back into the air with its own lunch in its claws. Awesome. At the very least you should spot an egret or two wading about.
If you’d rather head downstream on the Hudson, keep to the right bank of the Rondout. Among the interesting sights that you’ll pass is a channel that cuts right through Sleightsburg Spit when the tide is high. When it’s low you’d have to portage your craft through the muck if you want to take the shortcut. Otherwise, the longer paddle along the jetty will reward you with views of many seabirds, as well as at least a few human anglers.
What’s on the far side of that spit, down towards Port Ewen? There’s an intriguing circular stone platform in the stream, which this correspondent has heard variously described as an old lighthouse pad or some sort of defensive emplacement from the Civil War or even earlier, protecting the passage upriver. Beyond it is the bay that fronts George Freer Park, the municipal waterfront park serving downtown Port Ewen. There is a boat ramp there, which didn’t get much use in summertime since the water chestnuts took over. But now they’ve got Chester, the time has come to check it out!
