The county I live in has decided to close the wilderness parks, three of which had kayak launches.
There is only one place left to put a boat in the water. There were fifty-sixty people there last Saturday, which complicated the hell out of social distancing.
Seems counter-productive to say that we need to get out and exercise, then close the places to do that.
Lots of crazy out there these days, even more than normal.
Lots of crazy is an understatement. I get TV from Washington, being right on the border. Last night they were saying that according to the unemployment office if your job is shut down, the stores are looking for peopleā¦ā¦. Soā¦ They force you out of your middle class job in a controlled environment, for your safety of course, then they tell you to take a minimum wage job where you encounter thousands of strangers?? Logic has nothing to do with anything we are seeing.
This is what I fear. On Wednesday afternoon our governor finally issued a statewide shelter-in-place state order, but it came awfully late. San Juan County, CO (and San Juan County, UT, I think) had already hung out the Not Welcome message, along with San Miguel, Summit, Pitkin, Gunnison, Jefferson, Boulder, Adams, Douglas, Arapahoe, LaPlata, and maybe a few other counties.
Meanwhile, I had been seeing plates from WA, FL, NV, CA, TX, and others rolling in, some obviously young people who were treating it as an unexpected vacation in rural places that SO FAR had not become hot spots. Thanks for maybe bringing it in, aholes! And lest anyone think these visitors spend lots of money, they tend to come for FREE camping. If only the feds would prohibit all overnight stays and our county would hang out its own Not Welcome Now sign. State parks are still open but not their campgrounds or group facilitiesāGOOD!
Boat ramps are just about to open at some reservoirs. We shall see.
Some towns are instituting quarantine regulations on the mainland too. Hopefully they will be gone by summer. https://wgme.com/news/coronavirus/some-maine-communities-issuing-self-quarantine-orders-for-people-vacationing
Friendship Waldoboro and Cushing. are some of the towns. So yes it could affect your paddling plans
Michigan has been on a stay-at-home order for a week now, but that hasnāt stopped vacation home owners from traveling āUp Northā to the dismay of the locals.
With 83% of the cases far downstate, local police departments are now issuing warnings to vacation home owners not to travel here because of the lack of medical facilities. The 14-day self quarantine request has been made of those who have made the trip, but thereās no way to enforce it.
Distilleries are now making hand sanitizer, people are making and donating face masks, and a company that builds downhill skis is turning out face guards. Lots of creative good efforts.
Some useful information:
Itās just a big, white leaky nose-plug of sortsā¦
Exactly the same situation in the parts of New York, outside of the southern cancer we call NYC, of course. The part of the Adirondacks where I live are sparsely populated, and there is no way anyone could close hiking in the backcountry. even if the government wanted. There is so much free, public land that trailhead entries can be easily avoided. Outside of the most popular overcrowded high peaks region, when bushwhacking, you are unlikely to ever see anyone, if you know what your are doing and a have minimal navigation skills. One of the towns in the HP area is asking that residents of local seasonal homes stay away instead of making unusually early trips to escape the city. There is concern for EMS and forest rangers who normally are involved in numerous rescue incidents of unprepared city visitors as possible virus carriers.
This is my new Covid19 daily routine, cranking out reusable fabric masks for the health care workers and first responders in metro Pittsburgh. They are so short of the disposables that each nurse or caregiver gets one per day so they use these masks we make to keep them cleaner and more comfortable. Some facilities like nursing homes and workers who do home care visits canāt even get the disposables. These will block 50% of particles which is better than nothing, and they can be laundered and machine dried just like scrubs. I can crank out about 3 or 4 per hour on the old Singer treadle. Iām putting a good dent in the stash of quilt cottons and remnants left over from sewing loud Hawaiian shirts for my nephews. Also cannibalizing flat sheets and pillow cases.
When this is over the nurses can tie two of them together and create bikini bra tops!
@kayamedic
Special thanks for the update on Friendship and Waldoboro. I will have to keep an eye in that. Canāt say I blame the folks who own the general store in Friendship. It is charming, run by wonderful people and small. The expanded Hannaford in Waldoboro is still not a superstore.
I can envision ways in which an order could at least be monitored in some vacation spots there and in Boothbay. Cross fingers that the summer is late enough to be by the worst of it.
I just posted that to keep you and others that may want to visit this summer updated. I certainly hope it gets easier.
I donāt mean to fearmonger. We do need summer visitors. And as we have few takeout spots, there is likely to be in increase in domestic disharmony. Not all are good cooks.
That Hannaford is on the par with the one near me. The entire chain has been hammered with a fifty percent increase in business at a time when every other store in the US is probably too. It is different than the summer influx of visitors and people transitioning to second homes. Off schedule and all at once and folks wanting to not be scared and have supplies. They are also bringing extended families who normally would not be here all at the same time. I hope they all stay healthy
As a funny note I need to make a veggie garden. The chosen plot is full of moss and finally snow free.
Voila! I just found a month worth of substitute TP!
I have to admit if I was in NYC Iād want to escape to Florida. Most of 'em go to Brevard and Dade counties. I wouldnāt want to live in either place, but I understand.
Our local Restaurants with online ordering are delivering to the curb. Some have set up tents to make a temp drive thru. Not the same though as eating in dining room.
Club paddles still going on. I donāt have one scheduled to lead till April 16. Meetings are going web based conference call.
Testing centers opening up. I wonder if the rise in ācasesā is a rise cases or a rise in testing.
You are not fear mongering at all. But the situation is dire.
I am in an area upstate that should be able to flatten the curve well before summer if we all just keep our wits about us. The wild card is if the City explodes north. No one wants to set up road barriers but the next four weeks are likely to test that resolve. I am already in a bad science fiction movie, did a turnaround to get a couple of friends who landed in Logan Tuesday along nearly deserted Mass Pike. They are squeaky clean, have certificates to prove it because their small ship didnāt stop anywhere that could be an issue. And they were gloved and masked and isolated etc as much humanly possible in the airport and during the flight. So if traffic is halted out of NYC and Westchester it would not be much weirder.
I am hoping that my summer weeks are late enough to be preserved for more than my own sake. The place I stay at is a conclave that has been in the same family for over 100 years and is also the highest taxed property in the town. They have done everything they can to keep it intact, even put it into a trust. But they cannot pay the tax bill without cottage rentals. I need to be able to be there to pay money so they can still be there for me.
And this is a common scenario in Maine. At least midcoast and up, rentals and motels are still largely family-owned operations. It aināt the gold coast of Florida.
Congrats on the TP solution.
Crossed fingers.
The day before yesterday I went out for an easy stroll on a path that runs along a small local creek thatās mostly noted for trout fishing. At the very beginning of the path there is a small shelter and a bench that overlooks a little chute with eddies on both sides. There were a couple guys in play boats working that little chute and practicing various stunts, ferries, and rolls. I asked if the creek was clear upstream since there was a good chance there would be strainers after the winter. They didnāt know. They each brought their own cars and boats and just carried across the park to paddle that one little chute.
Brilliant! Iāve lived here for thirty-five years and never seen anyone else loiter to play that spot, but there they were paddling, avoiding shuttles, and practicing physical distancing. It may seem like āthin soupā paddling without covering any river miles at all, and they burned gas for no miles paddled - but I have to admit, they were paddling and I wasnāt. Under present circumstances its hard to fault them.
Perhaps there are such spots near where readers of this live that could be accessed and enjoyed without shuttles? Even getting together with paddling buds (but not driving together) would be possible - like a joint visit to a little mini whitewater park. Its not that adventurous, at least to my mind, but it might help keep us sane until the viral storm passes.
In the south, the last thing you want to use for substitute TP is moss. Chiggers make their homes in it.
Someday you will get my name right. 
Obviously it is not a big deal
Things can get uglyā¦ Gun toting folks on Vinalhaven enforced a quarantine on an out of stater. They felled a large pine across his driveway and set up a sentry. In 14 days they will bring the chainsaw back to cut up the tree
@kayamedic
Sorry, been trying on the name but l find it too easy a mistake l guess.
I suppose the lobsterers who periodically get into a shooting match with the Vinalhaven crew wouldnāt mind the Vinalhaven folks having something else to keep them busy. Want to say it is the boats out of Friendship but not sure. Thoā gotta wonder about how hard the person they blocked in has worked on relationships w their full time neighbors. That person will never be regarded as a true Mainer, but that is not insurmountable as long as they understand it means they have work harder at it.
I needed to get out of the house, so we took a ride down to Narragansett and did the the loop around Point Judith. We kept our eyes open for out-of-state plates, but only saw one from New York, and three from New Jersey. We decided not to turn them in. 
There were a lot of people in Galilee looking to buy lobsters off the boats to support the fishermen. Not so many people down by Point Judith.
That is pretty funnyā¦ well maybe not.
I went to Vinalhaven many years ago for work. The guy I was meeting with had just evicted a squatter from his house - said he had to to it every time he went there. I think I would find another place to go for the summer.
I feel bad for my neighbors who used to live here seasonally. Now they moved here full time over the winter and their cars still bear NY plates. Nothing they can do about that as it isnāt possible to get new registrations now. There is some hate going on that I have read of vigilante style. That is unfortunate.
My son lives in Brunswick, but has RI plates. They might be a little more open minded there, and RI isnāt like NYC. Lets hope it stays that way.
