I had somewhere to be on this Saturday at 1:00 p.m., but the weather was slated to be good and the fall foliage is just about peaking where I live, so I really wanted to get a paddle in before needing to be home at 12:00 noon. With this in mind I decided to hit up the Passaic River at the access point where it crosses South Orange Ave. in Livingston. This is 20 minutes from home and I hadn’t been there since the leaves started turning. Additionally, I knew I couldn’t go far either since it hadn’t rained significantly is weeks and the water levels all over are still low and a few trees are bound to be down blocking my access.
One thing I noticed when I put in is that the brightly colored trees of Red, Orange and Yellow that are present all over my neighborhood are a rarity instead of the norm on the river. This isn’t to say there wasn’t some spectacular foliage out there. Hopefully I have one or two more trips in the fall foliage before it all disappears.
I was resigned to take the trip slow, capture the light, where it presented itself, and try to focus on photography of the autumn leaves. Subsequently, there is only a short 2-minute video segment and very little wildlife to see or comment on. The only wildlife I did see was a deer early in the trip but he did let me get close to him.
Based on photograph timestamps, the trip is as follows:
- 8:39 – First photo on the water
- 8:54 – Photograph deer
- 9:00 – Reach furthest extent upstream I would go at a series of downed trees
- 9:15 – After paddling downstream I arrive back to the launch site.
- 9:17 – Go under South Orange Ave. bridge
- 9:50 – Reach the furthest extent downstream I would go
- 10:24 – Get back to the launch/take-out point and last picture on the water
To view a slideshow of the photos taken or to purchase downloads ($0.99/download), prints or other items go to my SmugMug link below. There is some nice foliage just on the brink of turning. In addition, there are some good shots of a deer aI got pretty close to.
http://fidogenic.smugmug.com/Kayaking/Passaic-River/2010-10-23-Kayaking-the/14368021_2PmDA
Larry and Kathy's Kayak Adventures 
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