Skip Doyle led a great leisurely paddle down the Walkill river from New Paltz to Perrine's bridge in Tilson.
Skip had everyone introduce themselves and describe their kayak experience. Sherry and Marty both had some past leader experience so they also became leaders of the paddle.
We planned to launch at 2:00 after shuttling cars to the take out point at the bridge. However, some large thunderstorms came up to our south so we decided to wait for a while to see what the storm would do. We almost canceled but decided to launch and see how things were at the next take out. At the next take out, about 3/4 mile away things had cleared and we decided to press on.
The river was very calm with a very slow current. We stopped to regroup several times along the way so that everyone could go at a pace comfortable for them. We saw many great blue herons and one black capped night heron.
We reached the bridge in about 3 hours with a total distance of about 8.5 miles according to the GPS. We averaged a little over 3 mph. The take out was at the bridge so people took their boats out and headed home after a great paddle.
A BIG thanks to Skip for organizing and leading the paddle.
I decided to paddle back up river to get some additional exercise. It took me 2 hours going back and the GPS said I had covered a total of 17 miles. I was very glad to see my car when I got back to the launch.
Here is a slide show of some of the great views and people on our paddle.
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