Tuesday, July 6, 2021

Hot Days at Schodack Island State Park

June 22-June 30, 2021                                    Most Recent Posts
Schodack Island State Park                  VA to NY: Schodack Island State Park
Castleton-on-Hudson, New York                    It’s Celia’s Turn



After a rather harrowing drive, discovering the water problems and the dry creek, all described in the previous post (link above) , my first full day at the park was the beginning of a week of temperatures that ranged between 92 and 98 degrees.  Often hotter than it was in Virginia.  I checked their temperatures every day wondering why I’d driven 550 miles to bake here rather than there.  I took to the trail early to try to beat the heat

IMG_5985_thumb[2]and this time I went the other direction and ended up at the Hudson.  Big river, big boats, potential for rough water.  I might consider kayaking along the shore but it just didn’t feel like my kind of place. More for speedboats like this or barges.

RATS, I’d really thought there would be kayaking on an island surrounded by water.


IMG_5977_thumb[1]


Looking north on the Hudson from the park under continually gray skies.

IMG_5986_thumb[1]


Looking south.  Seems Industrial.  Not many wildlife pictures to be had me thinks. But then what do I know?

IMG_5990_thumb[2]



IMG_5991_thumb[1]

Later I learned that the park in includes 3 large and at least 3 smaller islands now joined into one land mass by the Hudson River dredging spoil and attached at the north end to the mainland south of the village of Castleton-on-Hudson.  That technically makes it a peninsula not an island.



Schodack on the map_thumb[1]A sign explained this to me and shocked me by also explaining that the Hudson is a TIDAL RIVER.  It’s 150 miles north of New York.  Way closer to the Finger Lakes.  I’d call this up state New York.  How can it be tidal?  But that would explain the creek yesterday afternoon.  Time to get a tide chart.





IMG_5955c_thumb[2]The area around the Hudson boat launch and waterfront is a big day use area with lots of benches, picnic tables, grilles, some pavilions and this great kids play area.  I wished Colin and Celia had been here though it was getting too hot to consider running around.  At least for me, maybe not for them.


IMG_5957_thumb[1]




IMG_5959_thumb[3]

On my way back from seeing the Hudson boat launch I took the Story Trail which was put up by the Castleton-on-Hudson Library.  So cute!!  Celia and Colin would have loved it as much as I did.20210628_095852_thumb[2]


Here’s some but not all of the story trail.  It was very well done by the library which I intend to visit before I leave.


IMG_5960_thumb[2]


It not only had the story of the beavers but information about beavers and their unique teeth as well as facts about who else uses a beaver pond and lodge.  You can click on any of the pictures below to make them larger.


IMG_5962_thumbIMG_5963_thumbIMG_5964_thumbIMG_5968_thumb



IMG_5965_thumb[2]By now it was getting way too hot and way way too humid and way way way too many gnats and mosquitoes.  The sweat was rolling down my neck  by the time I hiked by this bird blind.  It might deserve a return trip WAY earlier in the morning but as a tiny inlet off the big Hudson, I wonder whether I’d see any feathered folks there.   I’d definitely stayed out too long.  It was approaching 95 degrees when I got back to Winnona and it wasn’t even noon.


IMG_5967_thumb[2]



IMG_5942_thumb[2]Early next morning, now knowing about the tidalness of the creek, I hiked over and check it out at at 6:30am.  It was already hot even though there  was good cloud cover.  The last time I had been here, I had been looking only at the the absent creek and didn’t even register the sign.



IMG_5944_thumb[1]

This time I paid attention to the BIG RED sign and to the situation surrounding kayaking here.  As in, you have to park at the top and either put wheels on your kayak and roll it down the steep path going off to the left in the first picture and then back UP that same steep path when you come back or take the kayak down and then up the stairs.  For two people, no problem.  But a consideration for me.  Car parking is only at the top you cannot drive down the path.


IMG_5945_thumb[1]


20210629_074218_Burst01


Sure enough, the dock was floating and I could walk out on it.  No muddy creek sides visible.

IMG_5947_thumb[1]


It’s a really well  done  launch.  You can set your boat over the side or go down the rubber ramp and push off.

IMG_5950_thumb[4]



20210629_074700I eventually learned that it is 5 miles in this direction, up stream, to the Hudson and 9.5 to the boat launch at the day use area on the Hudson.  At that point you could leave your kayak and hike back here to get your car.  Wonder where you’d lock your kayak?  And you’d have to hike with all your gear.




I also learned that  looking upstream there is that bridge and then the waterway gets smaller, narrower and harder to navigate especially as the tide goes out.  Sorry the pictures are so dark. 

IMG_5948_thumb[1]



20210628_091453_thumb[1]By this time it was too late for me to go back, get into my kayak clothes, drive the boat over here and get it into the water.  That would take an hour at least and the heat was rising. 

I was very surprised when Mary and her parents showed up to go out.  Her dad tied her little boat with wings onto the back of his.  Mary told me she was 5 and had only been in the boat in a swimming pool so she was a little scared.  But not too much she said because her mom would be right next to her.


20210628_091804_thumb[2]Her mom helped her in and off they went.  Not sure how Mary will do any paddling with those wings in her way but she doesn’t really need to since Dad is towing her.  Her little paddle is so cute and so is she.

I was worried about the burning sun and her uncovered legs but they can’t go too far up stream before they will have to turn around and head back.

Too hot and sweaty for me although there was a small breeze on the creek.


20210628_091946_thumb[2]



Wish I’d been kayaking with my parents at age 5.  Just think of the fun family adventures they will have over the years. 


20210628_091953_thumb[2]


Long story short.  The heat wilted me over the days I was here and as the high tide got later in the morning and the air was thick and hot when I stepped outside first thing to go hiking, I just could not make myself go to the trouble of getting the  kayak down to the dock and launching it.

If I could have taken it off the car once and locked it up down there and gone out for just an hour or so when the morning’s high tide wasn’t too late, I would have done that. Perhaps I could have kayaked the evening high tide but it never seemed to cool off here.   And there was no way to lock the kayak at the launch.

I really would like to have done the 9.5 mile kayak down the entire creek to the Hudson and up to the take out there.  But it was just so hot and it would have been 3 or 4 hours on the water. Would have been great if it had been cooler.  Again that is something I might well have done had David been here to make it all easier and more fun.  I need a kayaking companion.  Any volunteers??


20210630_110443_thumb[3]I did hike early every morning mostly searching for the path out to the view of the creek that you can see on this trail map.  See the binocular sign on that red spur down the creek on the right side of the map? That’s where I wanted to go. 

But the red trail wasn’t where the map shows and there were unlabeled trails marked open to hunting – in season I assume – that were not on the map. 

I found some picnic tables but they weren’t where the map shows them either.  I was able over the days to hike the blue and yellow and mixed trails that loop around but simply could not find that creek side viewing spot so far down from the launch.  Only the main yellow trail was well marked and in some cases very wide.


20210630_074351_thumb120210630_074802_thumb




My last attempt at taking every spur in the vicinity of the one I was looking for ended me up on this.  There was a slight trail in the picture on the left and plants up to my waist.  It did turn in to the one on the right and led to the Hudson not the creek.  I gave up.


20210630_080744_thumb20210630_080803_thumb


On my final day, the temperature was 96 and I drove into Castleton-on-Hudson to visit the library which was in a beautiful Victorian building.  I thought it must be a regional library in order to have that many books.  I always visit the  libraries everywhere I travel that I am close to a small town.

20210629_122252



20210629_123433Perhaps the industrial style door should have given me a clue but I was shocked when I stepped inside to a dark straight hallway with doors on both sides.  This was the town’s municipal office building and clearly all the character had been taken out of the house. 

The first door on the right was the little library.  When the librarian offered to give me a tour I tried to determine if she was joking and then said sure. She walked me down one side and up the other reading the labels on the wall that said Youth Fiction, Adult Nonfiction and so on.





In looking around on my own, I did find a couple of unique things.  The first was in the narrow bookcase labeled LOCAL.  There were a set of books of interviews with older life long residents of the town which talked about and showed pictures of the town in its hay day.   It seems to have died with the advent of the shopping center “up the road” about 15 miles.   In the 40’s it was bustling with 4 car dealers, 2 hardware stores, a movie theater and a dozen restaurants.  This week the librarian told me when I asked where I could go to get a local bite to eat, the last restaurant closed.  Very sad.


20210629_123720This book was dictated by a man born in the early 40’s so his youth was in the 40’s and 50’s.  I was taken by an old TV that I remember seeing in my grandmother’s house and by Howdy Doody and Buffalo Bob who were on TV when I was a little girl.  There were 5 other dictated books which showed even earlier eras of the town and the farming community it had originally been.


Small as it is, this is a very active library.  I was quite impressed with the things beyond books that they loan out and that they do.  Hanging on this pole were all  kinds of baking pans to check out.  They loan out garden tools and other things.  They have take home craft and science kits, art classes, games on the lawn, yoga and of course the story walk I saw at the park and others around town.  The events and services provided by this library far outshine what goes on in the much Charlottesville Library and its branches.  I was very very impressed.  Take a look for yourself at their newsletter and see the things they are doing in July.  I should have come here first thing, I would have come for the yoga class – IF it wasn’t raining that day.  Is your local library this active??


20210629_12265920210629_125707


Of course it was a cloudy, rainy day when I visited the  library and took these pictures as I drove through town.  I have lightened them so you can see the one flashing light in town and the banners of their war heroes hanging from the telephone poles on the right side of the street.


There were some nice old buildings, mostly empty along the street, their backs against the river. 


Somehow I didn’t feel right about walking through the town taking pictures.  There was really no where to be going.  I was happy about the active library but sad that the town had lost so much to “progress”.  I wonder if they would say they are better off now?


I’ll close with the only wildlife I saw at the park.  He and his family, I assume, were around all the time and pretty much everywhere.

IMG_5952_thumb

I’m heading further north to try to escape the heat.  Glad this wasn’t the weather the year we spent the summer in the Finger Lakes of New York and had a wonderful time.

Coming to you next time from St. Johnsbury Vermont. 

35 comments:

  1. Sorry for soooo much heat! Expecting the same here all this week. Bobby had a deer in his front yard a few days ago, mid-morning. Seemed on its way to YOUR front yard till it saw me in my car. Turned around and went between Bobby's and Shirley's houses. Or, as we know, maybe just behind Bobby's house! Take care.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the comment Diane. I don't think I was any hotter than you all were. Bobby's yard is pretty deep and dark.

      Delete
  2. Beavers certainly have a way of transforming everything around them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They do William and the little story trail was cute and informative.

      Delete
  3. Sounds like it wasn't a great stop - or perhaps the weather made it so? I'm still on the Oregon coast, huddled in my hoodie, listening to the fan of the space heater. Hope the next destination is a little more to your liking, or at least the heat breaks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're right Brenda, it would have been much better if it hadn't been so hot. Hoodie sounds perfect to me. But I thought it was very hot in Oregon.

      Delete
  4. Heat seems to be an issue everywhere this year. Global warming?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pretty sure global warming is involved but we're not willing to make the sacrifices necessary to do anything about it. Wonder how long we'll be able to provide the power to air condition the entire country?

      Delete
  5. It is sad when a town just dies. That's what has happened to Cumberland where I grew up. The downtown mall is mostly empty storefronts or junk stores. Kanab, Utah (where Best Friends is) has only one stop light.Bummer about the difficulty in kayaking and the "hot as a boiled owl" weather. Woo hoo! About the library. How cool is that! I looked at their projects and copied them down so I can do them with Finn. Really cool ideas! Hope you find more to do in Vermont!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes Pam it was a sweet little town with a lovely name and a great library. Very sad. Glad you checked out their projects. Hope find likes them.

      Delete
  6. What a cool little library. I've heard of lending libraries like that, but baking pans is a new one. So sorry it was so hot there.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The physical space wasn't all that much Laurie but their programs and offerings were wonderful.

      Delete
  7. Nice fix on the washer - just in time to leave :-) Glad you didn't have to move that cast iron tub!! Bummer that your first park was so hot and unsatisfying. Looks pretty dreary :-( We've never checked the water but after seeing your jug of yellow nastiness that might change!! Hope you find cooler temps and more fun things to see and do.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Jodee, I was pretty proud of myself being able to get both the doors off, fix the thing and get the doors back on with no help.

      Delete
  8. Whoa. You got there during some hot weather. A long time ago (50 years!!), I spent a couple of years in Rhinebeck NY, which is south of your location....and being from Texas, was stunned to find one August a bit of a griller. I had an attic level apartment. Whew. I still remember it. But I was there long enough to appreciate the area - camping alone with a backpack in the fall, and in the Catskills in the winter. Love winter camping. No bugs. And all so rich in history...Hope your days get more pleasant!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh boy an attic in August. Not sure that would be good anywhere. Aren't you in Texas? But you love winter? Now that I'm in Vermont, my days are much better.

      Delete
    2. Ha. Yes. I am STILL in TX. Boggles my mind sometimes. Glad you are in VT. Lovely. Just lovely. (I do love winter...but we had a bit more than ordinary this past February. Zero degrees is not common...weather extremes do happen here. And always without the lovely blanket of redeeming snow. Even with it, I think I'm a bit too old to go backpacking and spending the nights in the snowy Catskills, but I loved it at the time)

      Delete
  9. Sorry about the weather, I watched some YT channels and they all said the same thing they turned around and left.

    We had that same looking TV in our house when I was a child.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was definitely glad to leave the heat and move further north Jo.

      Delete
  10. An unusual park with a fun trail. Sorry you didn't go kayaking and wish my lousy shoulders would allow paddling. Mary is cute. Sadly trails get moved more frequently than signs redone. What a surprise for the library. Hope you've escaped the heat.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I would have enjoyed the park much more if it hadn't been so hot and the high tides had enabled kayaking. But that's the way it goes on the road. These days you can't just pack up and move if you don't like some place like you could before the RV rage.

      Delete
  11. Great post, Sherry, excellent pictures, fun writing and good stories. However, I must say this is one particular time in your travels that I am not in the least bit envious of where you are and what you are doing. I do hope things cool down for you eventually, and that you find some kayaking more to your liking. Heat. Can't escape it. At least here we don't have bugs, or at least not many. The honeybees love my birdbaths, which is a good thing, and the bumblebees love the lavender. So far no yellow jackets. For whatever reason, we don't seem to have mosquitoes and gnats here at home in GP, but the flies do show up, especially when it gets smoky with fires. Lots of folks around us are keeping chickens and that does increase the fly population, but they aren't those tiny awful black biting kind at least. Not a fan of nasty bugs.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm so glad you enjoyed the post Sue. Can't blame you for not being envious. I did find both better temps and better kayaking in Vermont. I probably would have left NY soon had I been able to but, like I told Gaelyn, you can't do that any more sadly. I'm not a fan of bugs either especially mosquitoes and the little ones that swarm around my face.

      Delete
  12. Too much heat, too far north. Frustrating about the kayak, although I understand why you didn't do it. Mary was definitely cute. Very neat library and story trail. Seems like the highlight to me. Loaning out tools and pans - that's neat!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes I thought it was very unusual for it to be that hot. Your dad and I had stayed nearly an entire summer in upstate NY and never had a problem with heat. The library's programs were great. I wish I'd asked what else they loaned out.

      Delete
  13. How well I remember the tides on the Hudson River from my CG days when I was stationed in NYC. More than one boater had problems with them. The tides affect the river up to about the Bear Mountain Bridge. Amazing power of nature.

    We've seen quite a few dying towns during our travels. Sad to see, wish I've been able to see them during their heyday. Walmarts and other big box stores are no friend of the mom and pop stores. :c(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Great comment Paul. I had no idea that the Hudson was title up this far north. I had never shopped in a Walmart until I went full-time and ended up staying in one of their parking lots. I objected to what they had done to Sweet small towns.

      Delete
  14. We were camping and wearing thermal under ware and rain jackets this week. It reached a high of 52 degrees F and I am no fan of chilly weather. The jet stream is causing funny weather, as it has relocated. We are home now with the heat on, yea! It is 58 degrees outside and 69 degrees inside, much better. Your post depicted a dreary place to live, a place forgotten as time marched on. It reminded me of being a kid and seeing our local town that passed it's prime when the interstate bypassed it. Peaceful yet sad.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Sounds chilly Tom even for Alaska in July. I think we all lost a lot when our small towns became less vigorous.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Ugh, the heat sounds awful! Sounds like you made the best of your time there, but I'm sure you were happy to move on north. I think it's a great loss to when those sweet little towns fade away. I'm glad that Apalachicola is thriving. It's changed some over the decades, but it's still a fishing town...now just a bit more artistic and interesting to my way of thinking.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes Laurel Apalachicola is a great little town. I'm not sure why the little towns in Florida don't seem to have died in the same way they have in other places. Just don't let those "shopping centers" and "big boxes" move anywhere near you.

      Delete
  17. Well, not sure what to say. This was not your best adventure, obviously, but it was interesting. I am so intrigued by the library's loan-a-baking-pan program. I love it. I wonder how/why it started. Thank you for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for commenting Pam. I suspect the library was responding to community interest in things other than just reading. The woman who gave me the "tour" of the tiny library just about talked my ear off. So I didn't really ask any questions like I might have. LOL

      Delete
  18. We have not been in New York state in quite awhile but they have some great recreation areas:)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Not that I want to rub it in, but it was so chilly today that we actually lit the log burner 😁. On the other hand it is also very wet. At least that means no need to water the garden. What a great library that was and I loved the idea of the book trail.

    ReplyDelete

Your comments help me in more ways than you can know. Thanks in advance.