Nissequogue River State Park to Paul T. Given Park Round Trip

Trip Overview

I planned my trip to start at Nissequogue River State Park which is actually the former site of Kings Park Psychiatric Center. There was no one at the booth collecting fees on this particular day. This may be due to the fact that the state park and surrounding area was still without power after Tropical Storm Isaias. I started about 45 minutes before high tide and was able to make it down and back with little concern. I launched and paddled south. The river remains wide for quite a while and gradually narrows until there is a clear and winding channel through the many oxbows of the marshes. These keep taking you from one side of the river to another and was for me the most fun part of the paddle. The surface of the water in the narrow section was littered with a lot of surface debris that was easy to paddle through. I didn’t see much in the way of submerged deadfall hazards. I passed Paul T Given County Park and paddled just a bit farther south under the railroad trestle to a small pond just north of a historic dam and gristmill. On my journey back north I stopped at Paul T Given County Park to rest and have some lunch. Also at the park were a group of paddlers starting their paddle north. They had been outfitted by a canoe and kayak rental outfitter that was picking them up at the state park after their one way trip north. My return trip was fine and I soon passed the outfitted paddlers headed north. When I got to the area where the river widnes back up the wind had picked up considerably. While the wind was not strong enough to form any significant waves, I fought a stiff head and side wind for a large portion of my trip back. For the duration of my trip I only saw three motorboats. The total length of my trip was 9.7 miles and it took me around 3 hours total in a touring kayak.