NYCkayaker East River Paddling

[Chris]

Hello All!  I signed up for this listserv about 3 weeks ago and have  
been following the discussions, announcements, and activities with a  
great deal of interest.  There are certainly knowledgeable,  
enthusiastic, and dedicated people in the NYC kayak community.  My name  
is Chris and I am a landscape architect graduate student researching  
the feasibility of a site along the East River to function as a kayak  
launch site.  This is purely an academic pursuit but hopefully data and  
analysis generated by this project will be submitted to NYC Parks upon  
completion.  There is interest among people in NYC Parks and City  
Government to develop a city wide water trail which is great.  However,  
I am curious about what the conditions are like now.  I have included a  
Google Earth file (ck_NYC Launch Site.kmz) which maps out the official  
public launch sites in the 5 boroughs.  This is all based on  
information from NYC Parks website.  I have also included an image  
(ck_East_R_paddle.pdf) depicting the route along the East River that I  
plan to paddle (12.2 miles - From Barretto Point to Louis J Valention  
Park) in a canoe the weekend before the Mayor's Cup.  I have questions  
about the East River in general and about this trip I am planning.  Any  
advice or information I can glean from people in this listserv will be  
invaluable.  I apologize to anyone who may have been inconvenienced by  
this email (I tried to keep the file size tiny).  Any respondents to  
this survey of sorts can send directly to me (cgk8 at cornell.edu) so as  
not to bloat up the listserv.  Thanks so much.  Hope to see you on  
water some day.

1) Is this list (see *.kmz file) of launch sites complete? I used the  
sites listed from this website  
http://nycgovparks.org/sub_things_to_do/facilities/marinas/html/ 
kayaks_canoes.html and added Idlewild Park Preserve.  It strikes me  
that there are no sites on Wards or Roosevelt Island.  Might there be  
additional sites managed by a different agency or private club?

2) For those of you have done it, what is paddling the East River like?  
  has anyone done this route I am planning?  What are things to look out  
for, enjoyable sections, dangerous areas, and tips in general.

3) Although I am pretty familiar with NOAA, I am having a difficulty  
finding tide and current data for the East River.  What sort of  
websites do you guys use when planning trips to find this valuable  
information?  I feel like there must be a sophisticated hydrograph  
telemetry especially if they are willing to put turbines in the river.   
If anyone knows where to access this sort of data please let me know.

4) What are the most important considerations for establishing a launch  
site?  What sorts of facilities, physical characteristics, and  
locations are most important to you as paddlers and community members?

5) What do you see as the biggest obstacles to overcome in the creation  
of a city-wide river trail network?

Any and all responses to the above questions will be greatly  
appreciated and thoughtfully considered.  I would love to continue to  
correspond and keep a dialogue going with those of you who wish to do  
the same about these important issues that we are all concerned with.   
I hope to be in town for the Mayor's Cup where i can get a feel for the  
boating community firsthand.  Thanks again.  Happy Fall. -chris


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