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Canoe trip across Central Park New York City

Cool article. Thanks for posting.

Reminds me of the time I smuggled a canoe onto to Jefferson Memorial’s
Tidal Basin. Across a fence and lowering the canoe down a 5’ retaining wall to the water. It was after hours and felt bandit, even though there is a concession that rents paddle wheelers there during the day. After reading the article I realize I should have carried the boat over to the Lincoln Reflecting Pool, too. Things were more lax 30 years ago. Not sure I’d try that now.
 
Surprisingly interesting, very well written, and great full moon night photos.

Central-Park-Full-JPG-5-scaled.jpg

Here is the shorter and less well written New Yorker article about the trip:

 
Reading about the topo maps depicting the original lay of the land vs the terraformed “improved” version makes me sad. But now I’m thinking about a moonlight paddle on the Wacissa…
 
Reading about the topo maps depicting the original lay of the land vs the terraformed “improved” version makes me sad. But now I’m thinking about a moonlight paddle on the Wacissa…
That kinda scares me.. With all those braided channels how do you read current ( grass drifting direction) in the dark?
 
That kinda scares me.. With all those braided channels how do you read current ( grass drifting direction) in the dark?
Well… headlamp for marking the tree line as needed and spotting eyes on the water. Can zoom in on the aerials on my phone to see where I am. Ida know, haven’t done it but it sounds awesome! Maybe in the beater fiberglass Wenonah rather than the Blacklite Northstar… there are silicified limestone boulders and those are most unforgiving. And I’d need to hit the dam lined up right.

What could go wrong? 😬
 
I only looked at the Slave Channel from the bottom... who said Florida rocks were not fearsome? Florida is all rock ! Ok some of it has mud on top but I loved that I could get out and walk in Whitewater Bay in the Everglades.. All limestone! I did use a paddle as a poke pole to avoid stepping in a hole unexpectedly.
 
Slave canal would be a different story. As would the wild streams going from Goose Pasture down to the Aucilla. That part would require more familiarity and care. I’d pull out at Goose Pasture, the end of the wide part of the river.
 
That kinda scares me.. With all those braided channels how do you read current ( grass drifting direction) in the dark?
The photos with the article show trees without much foliage, which undoubtedly allowed moon and city lights to somewhat illuminate the ponds.

I had severe moonlight mania for a few years and regularly did full moon outings. One summer full moon i canoed the GW canal, an easy CII run. I could read the moonlit water, but that was only about half of it. The other half of the surface disappeared in areas of foliage moonshadow, shadows from the tree canopy. The shadowed areas just looked black. In reality, it was a benign run and I couldn’t get in much trouble, but in my mind those black areas were full of hazards and very frightening. I wouldn’t do it again.

So, if paddling where It’s important to see where you are going, I suggest a strong headlamp. Not that you need to turn it on. Headlamps make you blind outside the light cone. But moonlight alone sometimes isn’t enough.
 
I’ve done a fair amount of night time cycling. One of the best local situations is a trail through the Munson sand hills, after a rain when the sand is nice and packed, under a full moon. The sand trail shows as a bright white stripe through the pine needles. No lights, just go! But I guess you can’t drown in the pines.
 
There was earlier canoe tripping in Central Park. In 1927 Chief Great Fire began patrolling Central Park's lake in full Iroquois attire. Story below picture.

Indian Canoe Central Park NYC.jpg

 
There was earlier canoe tripping in Central Park.

My guess is that this canoe might be a Kennebec Torpedo model as shown on the following page from their 1922 catalog. This would be similar to the small canoe of @Boatman53 pictured at the link below. Fun Stuff,

Benson


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