Kayaked Upper Alplaus

I kayaked the Alplaus Kill from Charlton Road to Van Vorst Road.

It was 7.5 miles, and most of it was pretty awful as far as kayaking was concerned.

I was assuming that the conditions would be similar to the lower Alplaus Kill that I kayaked two days earlier, but the water level was a little lower, and in general there is not nearly as much flow in this section of the stream.

I encountered some of the biggest log jams I have ever seen.

The route was very shallow, so I was scraping bottom for the entire way. I had to walk the kayak in many spots. The trip took me twice as long as I expected it to.

There was a tiny, shallow rocky area and as poor as it was, it was more fun than any other part of the trip.

I hate to sound so negative. The kayaking was truly awful, but that doesn't mean that the trip was not worth doing. It is great being out there and exploring places. I may have failed at finding a great kayaking location, but sometimes just being in a nearly unkayakable location is fun because you gotta assume that not too many people have made the trip. Along the way you see a lot of old places that don't get a lot of attention like this strange broken bridge:

At one point, I came across the most active area of mushrooms that I have ever seen (by far). In a very small area 100 feet in diameter, I came across dozens of different types of mushrooms, many of which I have never seen before. There were coral mushrooms, shelf mushrooms, boletes, chanterelles, and lobster mushrooms. Lobster mushrooms are a bright orange mold that parasitizes other mushrooms. Lobster mushrooms are edible but only if the host mushroom is not poisonous.