Manasquan River
by Monica Orso
September 6, 2024
In communicating with the trip participants before the paddle, someone commented that tour company Kayak East had a full trip planned on the same day/time as we did. Seeing that the put in is tight, and the parking lot not big, we decided to do the trip in reverse, starting across from Treasure Island at Maxson Ave Beach in Point Pleasant.
The forecast was for winds of about 12 on the river, which is doable. Having one person drop out the night before, three of us met in Point Pleasant to be greeted by blasting wind, way over 12. Since about ¾ of the paddle was on more open water, we decided to take our chances and go back to the original launch spot at the Manasquan Wildlife Management area and spend more time in the marshes.
To our surprise, there was not a single car or person there! We figured they had canceled because of the wind, but later found out that they were actually there on Wednesday. Yay! We had the marshes all to ourselves.
Instead of first heading east towards the open river, we decided to head inland into the more forested area since it was high tide, the only time one can venture back there. The last time I was there, you could only go about half a mile in due to blowdowns. But Terri P found a little opening we could squeeze through and we were able to continue upstream past the GS Parkway almost to Allaire State Park, at which point the quietness started to disappear. We did have a good amount of wildlife though, mostly cormorants in this section, and a nice assortment of wildflowers still in bloom plus one very large hornets nest.
When we could go no further we reversed with the now outgoing tide, passed our launch site and continued into the marshes. There was an abundance of egrets, herons, cormorants, gulls, terns, kingfisher and other assorted small birds plus a lot of fish jumping out of the water activity. When we reached the more open water, the wind had calmed down so we continued a little farther since the tides were still high enough to avoid mud flats. We passed a house perched up high with an interesting track and carriage pulley system to get people up and down the hill. Past that we paddled to a small private park for a quick snack and leg stretch before heading back to the take out. The wind was actually picking up again at this point.
Post paddle was a sushi and pizza debriefing at River Rock Restaurant overlooking a marina. Not the trip we had originally planned, but quite mellow and enjoyable in the end. Thanks to Terri P. and a special thanks to Peter W. who transported my boat due to a back ordered part on my new roof rack (yes, a mini can carry 2 boats with ease!)
Monica