and it should leave you alone.
CAMPING
Many paddlers often find camping an enjoyable, less expensive, and more convenient alternative to staying in a hotel or inn. Luckily for them, Long Island has some excellent spots where paddlers can pitch their tents and throw down their sleeping bags.
Two private campgrounds sit on Long Island’s North Fork, and a few more lie just beyond the New York City area. These facilities, and more, are listed at nycampgrounds.com. Three state parks on the island—Heckscher, Hither Hills, and Wildwood—also allow camping. Their specific information and reservation details can be found at nysparks.com/parks. Finally, both Nassau and Suffolk counties maintain 13 campgrounds in all, widely scattered across the island. The respective counties’ websites (1.usa.gov/ wQpzKl and https://parks.suffolkcountyny.gov/suffolkcamperweb) list these sites and provide all the information you might need in planning a stay.
Unfortunately, camping on Long Island is limited to the aforementioned facilities. There are no backcountry areas as in other regions like the Adirondacks or Catskills, where people can set up a tent at no cost. Instead, campers must pay a small fee and stay within a designated space. Nevertheless, camping is a great way to spend time outdoors and lets you experience a side of Long Island that few others have the pleasure of seeing for themselves.
More information about camping in the Empire State can be found in The Best in Tent Camping: New York State (Menasha Ridge Press).
NAVIGATIONAL RULES OF THE ROAD
With highly maneuverable boats that are capable of floating on only a few inches of water, we kayakers have the luxury of being able to go almost anywhere. This freedom is likely one of the main reasons people start kayaking in the first place. But because we share the water with other boaters and their wide variety of vessels, it is important to have a working knowledge of the navigational rules and regulations designated by the U.S. Coast Guard. Doing so not only increases your enjoyment of the sport, it helps ensure your safety as well.
As small, human-powered vessels, kayaks have the right of way over larger power and even sail vessels. The latter must yield to paddlers and make sure to not impede their progress. This rule only makes sense when in open water, though, where such vessels can easily change course and speed. Most encounters between kayaks and other boats happen in shallow water, near shore, or perhaps in narrow creeks, channels, or inlets. Under these circumstances, it is the kayaker who is in the more maneuverable boat and, as such, should do whatever he or she can to stay out of other boaters’ way.
Besides right of way, kayakers should also be able to recognize common navigational aids and understand what they mean for boaters. The two aids most often encountered on the water are the red and green buoys that mark boat channels. Known sometimes as “green cans” and “red nuns” because of their shapes, these buoys provide a visual clue regarding safe paths around shallow water, sandbars, rocks, reefs, structures, and other obstructions. Boaters must remain between the buoys to ensure safe passage.
Of course, kayakers need not restrict themselves to the boat channel, though times may arise when they must paddle across it. At these times, you should cross the channel via a path that is as close to a right angle as is possible. Obviously, you should also make sure that the way is clear and no boats are heading down the channel in either direction. The easiest way to determine direction of travel in any channel is to remember the saying, “Red, right, returning”—in other words, boats returning to a harbor from the sea will always have the red buoys on their right, or starboard, side. Thus, a boat traveling with the red buoys on its left, or port, side will be heading out to sea.
Things get a bit trickier at night, when navigational aids and other vessels are much harder to see. Luckily, most green and red buoys also display lights in their respective colors, which make them quite easy to find. Powerboats must also display lights—green on the starboard side, red on the port side, and white facing front and back—so their location and direction of travel is easy to determine as well. Should you spy a powerboat showing a green light, you can assume the boat is heading right. A white light in front of the green light indicates that the boat is coming closer to the kayak, whereas a white light behind a green indicates it is traveling farther away. Seeing both a green and red light, on the left and right, respectively, means the powerboat is heading straight toward you.
Kayaks are not required to display any continuously shining lights while on the water, but as Coast Guard regulations state, “Small boats should have ready at hand an electric torch or lighted lantern showing a white light which shall be exhibited in sufficient time to prevent collision.” For just this reason, I always carry a small flashlight and wear a headlamp when paddling at night. A quick shine on myself or my kayak makes me easily visible to other boaters and makes us all aware of each others’ presence.
Finally, you should be aware of one more rule of the road, although this one remains mostly unwritten: common sense dictates that you should be conscious of other kayakers and boaters on the water. Limit groups to small numbers, remain as quiet and in control as possible, give anglers and other nature-lovers plenty of space, and leave nothing behind but a wake. Finally, respect both public and private property on the water and on land—avoid paddling under private docks or piers, landing on private beaches or in designated swimming areas, or launching from private boat ramps without obtaining permission first.
PARKING AND SECURING VEHICLES
While researching this book, I had the pleasure of visiting just about every part of Long Island and New York City and was able to learn a few things about launching kayaks and parking cars along the way. For instance, I quickly found out that the put-ins that are part of the recently developed New York City Water Trail are some of the most convenient and well-set-up launch sites around. They all sport a safe, easy to use ramp, dock, or gradually sloping beach and in many cases have picnic tables, grass fields, and nearby parking. Even those spots without their own parking area have street parking very close by. The $15 it costs to use these facilities is, in my opinion, one of the best deals around.
Unfortunately, water access is a bit harder to come by on the rest of Long Island. With most of the shoreline considered private property or lying within a town, county, or state park, the everyday kayaker looking for a good place to put his or her boat in the water may sometimes have to pay in order to do so. Most town parks will usually let both residents and nonresidents park in their lots between Labor Day and Memorial Day. Otherwise, they may charge a nominal fee to nonresidents. Some county parks also charge a small entrance fee. Green Keys and Leisure Passes, available for purchase in Suffolk County and Nassau County, respectively, allow frequent park-users a chance to save a bit of money by paying an annual fee instead of multiple single-use fees. For more information on Green Keys, log on to bit.ly/zhjH8G; for more information on Leisure Passes, visit nassaucountyny.gov/agencies/parks/leisure.html.
You can also launch a kayak on Long Island without paying anything, although finding a place to do so can require a bit of creativity. As stated previously, many parks do not charge fees at all during the off-season. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has also constructed numerous launch sites and boat ramps that are open to everyone, free of charge. Paddling outfitters that sit right on the water often welcome the launching of boats from their property, although it’s always a good idea to stop inside first and say hello. Then there are the many roads that dead-end at the shore, train stations, and shopping-center parking lots, though you should be sure to check for parking restrictions before leaving your car in any of them.
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