"King"ston for a day

TOP: Robin doing rolling demonstration. After about 20 minutes underwater, someone checked on her.

2nd: Paddlers approaching pull-out in Kingston

3rd: Scott leading Gary in for his final "pottie break" of the day. His yak was something like 80 feet long

4th: The last Hudson steamship in existence. Ode to a bygone era

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After 3 great days of paddling, I elected to bail out of the trip after day 4. Unfortunately, I had a big bike trip coming up, and I could really feel my leg fitness slipping away. And, the river will still be there next year.

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The 4th day turned out to be interesting however. "Only" 10 miles of paddling, with several beach stops...thankfully that is, as my colon floweth over the whole day long, and I was dying. Don't know if it was dehydration, ingesting some of that lovely hudson river water, or what, but my intestines took a beating. It became one mad dash beach to beach, intestines gurgling all the way. When you're twisting your abs all day while stroking, that just increases the joy. Not a fun way to spend a lovely day out on the water.

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As we pulled into Kingston, we got the hightlight of the trip. Just in front of Kingston lighthouse, a canoe and kayak had both capsized from the powerboat wave action. The, oh, let's just call them MORONS, didn't even have PFD's on the boat, and one of them could barely swim. The kayak was a "no hatch" one, so it basically just sunk except for the nose sticking up out of the water like the statue of liberty's arm. Our stellar guides paddled over to them and took the situation well in hand. Impressive to see professionals at their craft. The near-drowned canoeists were most grateful.

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After docking (and dumping!), Robin put on a kayak rolling demonstration for us. Very impressive, and a skill that I have yet to learn. Well, that and going fast in my kayak. On the list now!

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All in all, a great trip, I will definitely be back to complete the river (along with Lake Champlain and the Champlain canal) in my quest to kayak all the major bodies of water in the state. What little I get done the rest of this summer will probably focus on knocking off some more of the finger lakes.

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"Adios Hudson" Lumpy out