The sunny and warm temperatures on Wednesday have business owners gearing up for a busy Memorial Day weekend on the water.
In New Hartford, Farmington River Tubing is hoping for crowds this weekend and this summer, hopeful that the nice weather will stick around.
“Everything’s in favor right now. Got great water flows, water temperature is already up to 60 degrees. Should be a really nice opening weekend,” owner Jeremy Harraden said.
Harraden was busy Wednesday filling up tubes that will soon fill the Farmington River. He’s hopeful this weekend’s weather will be better than year’s past.
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“On a normal opening weekend, cause it’s usually cloudy, rainy, crummy weather, [we get] maybe a dozen or so [people]. With weather like this, there could be hundreds," he said.
Last summer, the rainy weather was rough for business.
“Just too much water 'cause of all the rain. The river would be flooded so we couldn’t open,” Harraden said. “Lot of closed days, lot of unhappy staff ‘cause they didn’t have hours. It was bad for business last year.”
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The business has been in his family for 35 years. They’ve seen it all, but are hoping this season is an uneventful one.
“Hopefully we make up for it this year,” he said.
Down the river, Collinsville Canoe and Kayak is expecting another stellar season. The business offers canoes, kayaks and even bikes to ride on the rail trail.
“It’s fantastic when we get this great weather and we know we get to put a bunch of happy people in the water,” employee Ben Warner said. “The rainy days, obviously it’s a little slower, but what’s good for us in the dam here, things are really consistent. So we’ve had great water levels year-round, and we don’t have really rapids or current out here.”
Even on a Wednesday, they were busy with people renting gear to take out onto the river.
“We’ve had good flow out there on the river,” Warner said. “It’s quiet but there’s plenty of room and peace and quiet for you to get out there and have fun in the outdoors.”
