A Wawayanda Canoe Trail wander

Story and photos by Rosa Kasper If you want to wander Wawayanda Creek, now is the time to start the adventure. Today, Vernon’s waterways are ready, thanks to a group of 14 adventurous souls bearing chainsaws and ropes who launched their kayaks and canoes and set out to clear Vernon’s waterways of a year of accumulated tree trunks, branches and flotsam n the kind of debris that is likely to flip a boat and dunk its occupants. To reach the launch sites, some workers with four-wheel drive vehicles braved a rutted farm path off Price’s Switch Road and then scrambled down a small footpath bordered by rotten logs adorned by dinner-plate-sized shelf funguses. Others dragged kayaks or canoes down the banks of Black Creek on Maple Grange Road. Another group parked between the railroad tracks and the steel bridge on DeKay’s road, and waded through waist-high purple and pink phlox and bracken ferns to launch their craft into the cool creek water. “Look at these wonderful ferns,” said Environmental Commission Chairman Craig Williams as he beamed with delight. “This place is beautiful, magical.” As the DeKay’s Road crew tested and fueled chainsaws and anointed themselves with insect repellent, a muskrat cleaved the water, a woodchuck dived into its hole and a pileated woodpecker cackled unseen from a large red oak. In a meadow nearby, cattle lowed. “It was a good, hardworking Saturday,” said Councilman Austin Carew. “We went up the creek, and cleaned up huge piles of sticks and floating debris and moved fallen trees out of the water. The meager rainfall was in our favor because we could see and haul out snags that otherwise would have been submerged and treacherous for canoes.” Carew said that Vernon is working to make easier for people to get a launch site by applying for a permit to build a crushed stone parking lot at the Price’s Switch Road launch site, which already belongs to the state. But the process of obtaining the necessary state permits is long and complicated. Even to smooth out the ruts and flatten a huge hump that would cause most cars to bottom requires state permission. “To me the parking lot looks like a no brainer. You wouldn’t think it would be so difficult for the state to give itself a permit, but apparently it is,” Carew explained. “It would be nice if the N.J. Dept. of Environmental Protection would give different treatment to someone who wants to build a chemical plant near a stream and someone who wants to park a car and go kayaking.” State spokeswoman Karen Hershey told a reporter from The Advertiser-News that she would try to find out where the state stands with regard to the permitting process for the parking lot. “Beauty that isn’t that easy to find. People can’t use these beautiful creeks if they can’t get to them,” Carew said. “The more people who use the creeks and look at this beauty, the more people will see what a treasure we have here.” In December 2006, the state announced the availability of $1.7 million in Federal grants to maintain and improve trails in the state, including canoe trails. To be eligible to receive the funds, Vernon would have write grant applications and be willing to come up with 20 percent of the total cost of the project. Carew says that he hopes enough people will be interested in maintaining the canoe trail and building launch sites and parking lots to keep the pressure on the state to consider Vernon. Wawayanda Creek is a tributary of the Wallkill River, and goes by the name of Pochuck Creek as it flows into Vernon and joins Black Creek. Wawayanda has its source northeast of Warwick, N.Y., and runs through Orange County before dipping into Sussex County north of Highland Lakes, before returning to New York. Now the state is proposing a new rule that would classify the Wallkill and its tributaries, including Wawayanda, Pochuck and Black Creek, as waters of exceptional ecological significance, which require strong protective laws that govern their use. If the rule is adopted in the fall, after the required series of public hearings on its possible impact, parking lots and other access points could be even more severely restricted. Now, there are no true canoe trails in Sussex County. Canoe and kayak enthusiasts are limited to Wawayanda Lake. Most of the time the Wallkill and the Paulinskill are too shallow or too turbulent for good canoeing “If Vernon is to be a true four-season community, we need to be able to offer people easy access to our beautiful waterways,” Carew said. “And that’s just what we aim to do.” Eventually, there should at least five miles of good, clear water - a canoe trail going from Maple Grange Community Park to Pine Island, N.Y. Carew said that the group is working with canoe enthusiasts in New York to find ways to build another launching site.