June 12, 2008
We launched from the Peach Bottom Marina at 8:15 am. The temperature was 70 with low humidity and a clear sky.
We didn't have any river map for the Maryland portion of the river, the final 14 or so miles. We knew that the portage for the Conowingo Dam in Maryland was on right river, and since the Marina was on river left we decided to initially go diagonally across to river right. After 1-1/2 hours we were on the other side. Since there was no breeze, we were quickly wet from sweat.
There were not many landmarks on the river. In fact, there wasn't much at all along the edges after the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Plant. Finally ahead we saw the Conowingo Dam. We had found out in the spring that we were supposed to contact the dam a month ahead and every week after that and again the day before and the day of the portage around the dam. We found the phone number and calling requirements on a website of an outfitter in Marysville, PA. Every time I called the dam, I got a recording saying that the person was not available but would call back. I left a message each time including my phone number and never got a call back. I also never got a human being on my calls. The outfitter website also said to go to the Glen Cove Marina on river right about a half mile before the dam.
So, we landed at the marina with no previous contact with the dam. There we found a man who worked for the marina which was closed at the time. Making a long story short, the owner of the marina knew someone at the dam and we eventually got a ride around the dam by a dam employee. It seems the phone number is wrong and things will be corrected. We only spent 1-1/4 hours out of the water, so that wasn't too bad considering the lack of communications.
We were put back in just below the dam on river right and decided to stay on that side since final destination was the Tidewater Grill in Havre de Grace on river right. We were almost instantly surrounded by large rocks underwater and sticking out of the water. We think the area is called Smith's Falls. It lasted for approximately two miles until we reached the I-95 bridge. We did lots of dodging and twisting through the rock maze. We still scraped over rocks at times, but we didn't have to walk the kayaks at all. The river is down. When we left the Peach Bottom Marina in the morning, we noticed that the water in the cove was down close to a foot overnight. It was still nice to be back in current again. We had spent the previous two days in lake conditions because of the dams.
There was a total of four bridges we went under before getting to the Chesapeake Bay and the Tidewater Grill. The still air and rising temperature meant a very tiring and sweaty final leg. It was our shortest day for miles—17-1/2.
We finished feeling sore. I had some sun poisoning, but Sue really did well in that department. She burns real easy and maintained a regimen of SPF 50 and long sleeve shirts and long pants. She had a touch of sunburn between the end of her gloves and the beginning of her shirt sleeves. I tan easily and used SPF 15 on my arms. But it wasn't enough. Live and learn.
WE DID IT!!!! 444 MILES!!!!
In retrospect, we truly enjoyed paddling the wonderful Susquehanna River. The solitude of no motor noise and only paddle splashes is the way to go! We saw trees draping over the narrow beginning. We went through farmland and small towns. We went through cities. We passed through large remote pristine stretches of river where we felt like early explorers. We chatted with some very interesting people. We talked to lots of fishermen. We experienced nature at every turn. We might try the West Branch some time.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
June 11, 2008
June 11, 2008
By 8:30 we had launched from Wrightsville Access. The storms of the night before brought in cooler, dryer air. The day was sunny and the temperature was about 68 when we started. We wanted to move to river left because there was a bunch of rocks and riffs on the right side, so we paddled diagonally across the river skirting the rocks. It seemed to take forever. The river at that point is close to 1-1/2 miles wide.
We had tailwinds!!! Not strong ones—just steady soft rolling waves that were rolling WITH us! That made the day very pleasant. And combined with lower temperatures, nothing could be better.
We thought we would be making real good time because of the tailwinds, but we forgot that we were in Lake Clarke which is an eight mile lake formed by the Safe Harbor Dam. We still made better than three miles an hour. It is extremely wide. We didn't see much wildlife.
At Safe Harbor Dam we had two plant employees portage us around the dam and into a park maintained by the plant that borders the Conestoga River. The river was fast flowing into the Susquehanna and we were only about ¼ mile up. Back in the main river we tried to eat lunch in the kayaks while turning back and forth through whirlpools, I saw a muskrat on the shore. My first muskrat sighting.
Back in a lake again—Lake Aldred. It's between Safe Harbor and Holtwood Dams. It's about 7 miles long. Unmoving water but we still had tailwinds. The plant employee at Holtwood was right there when we dragged through the mud at the ramp. He drove us to Muddy Creek Access which is about three miles downriver and below the low water and rocks.
The tailwinds seemed to diminish and the temperature seemed to have risen. We went past the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station and were surprised there were no stacks like we saw at Three Mile Island (or Berwick). We headed for shore and the end of our day at Peach Bottom Marina on river left at mile 17-1/2. The marina is ½ mile up a creek that has a railroad bridge at its mouth. We didn't notice the marina and continued about a mile past that to some houses and such that we assumed had the marina among them. After a cell phone conversation with my husband, we found out that the marina was under and beyond the railroad bridge one mile back. Only one more day to go!!
By 8:30 we had launched from Wrightsville Access. The storms of the night before brought in cooler, dryer air. The day was sunny and the temperature was about 68 when we started. We wanted to move to river left because there was a bunch of rocks and riffs on the right side, so we paddled diagonally across the river skirting the rocks. It seemed to take forever. The river at that point is close to 1-1/2 miles wide.
We had tailwinds!!! Not strong ones—just steady soft rolling waves that were rolling WITH us! That made the day very pleasant. And combined with lower temperatures, nothing could be better.
We thought we would be making real good time because of the tailwinds, but we forgot that we were in Lake Clarke which is an eight mile lake formed by the Safe Harbor Dam. We still made better than three miles an hour. It is extremely wide. We didn't see much wildlife.
At Safe Harbor Dam we had two plant employees portage us around the dam and into a park maintained by the plant that borders the Conestoga River. The river was fast flowing into the Susquehanna and we were only about ¼ mile up. Back in the main river we tried to eat lunch in the kayaks while turning back and forth through whirlpools, I saw a muskrat on the shore. My first muskrat sighting.
Back in a lake again—Lake Aldred. It's between Safe Harbor and Holtwood Dams. It's about 7 miles long. Unmoving water but we still had tailwinds. The plant employee at Holtwood was right there when we dragged through the mud at the ramp. He drove us to Muddy Creek Access which is about three miles downriver and below the low water and rocks.
The tailwinds seemed to diminish and the temperature seemed to have risen. We went past the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station and were surprised there were no stacks like we saw at Three Mile Island (or Berwick). We headed for shore and the end of our day at Peach Bottom Marina on river left at mile 17-1/2. The marina is ½ mile up a creek that has a railroad bridge at its mouth. We didn't notice the marina and continued about a mile past that to some houses and such that we assumed had the marina among them. After a cell phone conversation with my husband, we found out that the marina was under and beyond the railroad bridge one mile back. Only one more day to go!!
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
June 10, 2008
June 10, 2008
We were on the water by 8:45 from the access in Lemoyne. It was already oppressively hot and humid. The water seemed that it had no current. We passed the Harrisburg Intl. Airport which has its only runway parallel to the river. We enjoyed watching planes landing and taking off. It was a pretty busy airport.
We stayed river right, around a large island, mainly because the maps showed that there were bathrooms after a short amount of riffs. WELL, the river was low and the “riffs” were two inches of water going around boulders—almost impassable in places. The kayaks took a beating, but kept on ticking. The Pungo's have been great, rugged, open cockpit kayaks. They have hit rocks—well, we have hit rocks with them—and they have scraped many rocks, either rather pointed or slab type, and they are still fine.
The stretch of river before the York Haven Dam was very slow and very hot. The sweat just poured out of us. We drank lots of fluids.
York haven Dam is interesting in that it runs diagonally across the river. The paddling area gets narrower and narrower as the dam comes over to river right. There was a portage sign. We put dollies on the kayaks and pulled them along a path first, and then through a picnic grove, across a parking lot, and down a thick gravel hill to a point where a tiny stream enters the river below the dam. Back on the trip again.
Next was five miles of flat gummy water that took a while to get through.
The river had gotten so wide that it was difficult to find landmarks from the map. As we were approaching the area before the Shock's Mill Bridge, we saw a buoy laying over flat in the water. We wondered what it meant but didn't think much about it. As we got closer to the bridge, as noted on the map, there were riffs. It got very difficult. There were shelves that were hard to read and as a result sometimes we didn't go over at the point that was least abrasive to the bottoms of the kayaks. We felt that some of these shelves could really be called short waterfalls. Along with them were the large and small rocks showing above the water and the other rocks lurking just below the surface. It was a challenging stretch. After getting through all that, Sue realized that the buoy was probably telling us that the water was low enough to make the riffs unnavigable.
After the Shock's Mill Bridge area we went through another five miles of still water with occasional shelves and rocks. It's amazing that the water is flat and shiny and there's nothing around and all of a sudden the kayak bounces over a rock! I guess that's why we don't see much motor boating on the river.
The sky was getting overcast with dark patches. We went river right through about a mile and a half of rapids that were around and under the Wrights Ferry Bridge and the Columbia Wrightsville Bridge. As we went through, Sue thought she saw lightning and heard thunder. I didn't see the lightning and thought the noise was truck traffic on the bridge. Originally we had our mind set on getting to the Upper or Lower Lock 2 Boat Ramp at mile 38. But we decided to get off the river immediately because of the weather change. We didn't want to get stuck out on the water with lightning. So we got off at the Wrightsville Access at mile 43.
There was very little wildlife today, but there were lots of dead fish.
We were on the water by 8:45 from the access in Lemoyne. It was already oppressively hot and humid. The water seemed that it had no current. We passed the Harrisburg Intl. Airport which has its only runway parallel to the river. We enjoyed watching planes landing and taking off. It was a pretty busy airport.
We stayed river right, around a large island, mainly because the maps showed that there were bathrooms after a short amount of riffs. WELL, the river was low and the “riffs” were two inches of water going around boulders—almost impassable in places. The kayaks took a beating, but kept on ticking. The Pungo's have been great, rugged, open cockpit kayaks. They have hit rocks—well, we have hit rocks with them—and they have scraped many rocks, either rather pointed or slab type, and they are still fine.
The stretch of river before the York Haven Dam was very slow and very hot. The sweat just poured out of us. We drank lots of fluids.
York haven Dam is interesting in that it runs diagonally across the river. The paddling area gets narrower and narrower as the dam comes over to river right. There was a portage sign. We put dollies on the kayaks and pulled them along a path first, and then through a picnic grove, across a parking lot, and down a thick gravel hill to a point where a tiny stream enters the river below the dam. Back on the trip again.
Next was five miles of flat gummy water that took a while to get through.
The river had gotten so wide that it was difficult to find landmarks from the map. As we were approaching the area before the Shock's Mill Bridge, we saw a buoy laying over flat in the water. We wondered what it meant but didn't think much about it. As we got closer to the bridge, as noted on the map, there were riffs. It got very difficult. There were shelves that were hard to read and as a result sometimes we didn't go over at the point that was least abrasive to the bottoms of the kayaks. We felt that some of these shelves could really be called short waterfalls. Along with them were the large and small rocks showing above the water and the other rocks lurking just below the surface. It was a challenging stretch. After getting through all that, Sue realized that the buoy was probably telling us that the water was low enough to make the riffs unnavigable.
After the Shock's Mill Bridge area we went through another five miles of still water with occasional shelves and rocks. It's amazing that the water is flat and shiny and there's nothing around and all of a sudden the kayak bounces over a rock! I guess that's why we don't see much motor boating on the river.
The sky was getting overcast with dark patches. We went river right through about a mile and a half of rapids that were around and under the Wrights Ferry Bridge and the Columbia Wrightsville Bridge. As we went through, Sue thought she saw lightning and heard thunder. I didn't see the lightning and thought the noise was truck traffic on the bridge. Originally we had our mind set on getting to the Upper or Lower Lock 2 Boat Ramp at mile 38. But we decided to get off the river immediately because of the weather change. We didn't want to get stuck out on the water with lightning. So we got off at the Wrightsville Access at mile 43.
There was very little wildlife today, but there were lots of dead fish.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
June 8, 2008
June 8, 2008
We launched at 8:00 am with the same weather forecast as for the 7th. It was a little cooler because we started out earlier. There were many more sections with large rocks scattered across the river making navigation much more challenging. Also, the further we paddled, the more shelves we passed over. Some of them I got hung up on momentarily.
We went under a long railroad bridge in Duncannon that had a train passing over it. We counted two engines and one hundred railcars. We raced to be under it when the train was still overhead. It was silent under the bridge we think because of the massive stonework that made up the bridge. It had at least two tracks for trains.
The Dauphin Narrows was quite an experience. The river made a sweeping right hand turn and maps instructed us to take the outside ( left river). Water was quick and there were many shelves and large rocks. Quick decisions had to be made. The current was played with by the wall put in to hold Routes 11 & 15. The kayaks were turned this way and that at most inopportune moments. A smaller replica of the Statue of Liberty which was put on top of an old bridge support could be seen for miles—from the beginning of the slow turn of the river.
We then encountered a light tailwind. It was good except that we felt hotter with sun at our front and very light breeze at our back.
We stopped in marshes on river left for lunch. I was red-faced and feeling light headed. The heat had done me in. Sue was faring a little better than me. Eating food and drinking lots of fluid and soaking our feet in water and talking for several minutes made an incredible difference. We were rejuvenated.
On towards Harrisburg. We felt that Harrisburg temperature was probably at the 100 degree level. If we didn't have good maps, we think we could have gotten into trouble just trying to get our kayaks out of the water for the portage around the Dock Street Dam. We went into the city on river left. There was a wall of cement steps along the Front Street side that extended for a couple of miles. The first warning of the dam ahead was on the last railroad bridge before the dam. The map said to portage from the steps right after the last railroad bridge. The water was too low to safely edge a kayak onto a step to try to get out so we noticed just after that bridge that there was a break in the steps before they began again. We paddled our kayaks up onto a curb-like edge that then had a bank of dirt and brush growing. We got out there and carried the kayaks up onto a cement walkway and then proceeded to put the dollies on the kayaks for easier carrying. We stopped under the I-83 bridge which was directly above the dam. We took another break and ate and drank. The cool breeze felt great too. That maneuvering of the kayaks wiped us out in the glaring heat. There was a spillway at the left edge of the dam, and the put-in was just below it. That was designed nice.
As we entered the river after the Dock Street Dam, we needed to cross to river right quickly before some islands in the center so that we would be on river right before the islands ended. When I checked for my maps, I realized they were not with me. I left them under the bridge at the dam!!!! We didn't try to go back to get them. We sprinted across the river noticing surprisingly little current coming from just below the dam. Two miles down was an access described, as we remembered, as under a railroad bridge. We found a yacht club marina as expected from the maps. Quickly afterward should be the access. We found a railroad bridge on the side of the river with Britches Creek flowing through it. Well, we thought, maybe we were expected to paddle up the creek a bit to find the access. So Sue led the search. The creek was flowing strongly due to a marked drop in elevation down to the river. I paddled under the bridge and had stopped moving due to the flow. Sue was making slight headway and realized we were in a housing development and would come to another bridge. We remembered that was not on the maps. Sue and I were able to turn around and get back to the river. A half mile down was a concrete ramp that led to under a railroad bridge. We found the right one, finally!!! Beyond the bridge was a park with a ball field, a pavilion, and porta potties. The Conservation Department people were on their boat doing their thing talking (I guess) to a kayaker about something! My husband Bill found us through luck and his GPS. We got off the river at 5:00, making nine paddling hours including stops. We proceeded 27 more miles.
We didn't see much wildlife. We DID see a lot of dead fish in the water. Some were small and many were large, probably totaling thirty or so. We don't know the cause of all these dead fish.
The temperature registering in our truck was 96 degrees. We hope the weather cools down a little. We heard that we might have thunderstorms Tuesday. We'll see.
Tomorrow we travel. We are moving the camper down to Tucquan Family Campground in Holtwood. So Bill will have quite a trip bringing us back to Lemoyne, just below Harrisburg to start out on Tuesday.
We launched at 8:00 am with the same weather forecast as for the 7th. It was a little cooler because we started out earlier. There were many more sections with large rocks scattered across the river making navigation much more challenging. Also, the further we paddled, the more shelves we passed over. Some of them I got hung up on momentarily.
We went under a long railroad bridge in Duncannon that had a train passing over it. We counted two engines and one hundred railcars. We raced to be under it when the train was still overhead. It was silent under the bridge we think because of the massive stonework that made up the bridge. It had at least two tracks for trains.
The Dauphin Narrows was quite an experience. The river made a sweeping right hand turn and maps instructed us to take the outside ( left river). Water was quick and there were many shelves and large rocks. Quick decisions had to be made. The current was played with by the wall put in to hold Routes 11 & 15. The kayaks were turned this way and that at most inopportune moments. A smaller replica of the Statue of Liberty which was put on top of an old bridge support could be seen for miles—from the beginning of the slow turn of the river.
We then encountered a light tailwind. It was good except that we felt hotter with sun at our front and very light breeze at our back.
We stopped in marshes on river left for lunch. I was red-faced and feeling light headed. The heat had done me in. Sue was faring a little better than me. Eating food and drinking lots of fluid and soaking our feet in water and talking for several minutes made an incredible difference. We were rejuvenated.
On towards Harrisburg. We felt that Harrisburg temperature was probably at the 100 degree level. If we didn't have good maps, we think we could have gotten into trouble just trying to get our kayaks out of the water for the portage around the Dock Street Dam. We went into the city on river left. There was a wall of cement steps along the Front Street side that extended for a couple of miles. The first warning of the dam ahead was on the last railroad bridge before the dam. The map said to portage from the steps right after the last railroad bridge. The water was too low to safely edge a kayak onto a step to try to get out so we noticed just after that bridge that there was a break in the steps before they began again. We paddled our kayaks up onto a curb-like edge that then had a bank of dirt and brush growing. We got out there and carried the kayaks up onto a cement walkway and then proceeded to put the dollies on the kayaks for easier carrying. We stopped under the I-83 bridge which was directly above the dam. We took another break and ate and drank. The cool breeze felt great too. That maneuvering of the kayaks wiped us out in the glaring heat. There was a spillway at the left edge of the dam, and the put-in was just below it. That was designed nice.
As we entered the river after the Dock Street Dam, we needed to cross to river right quickly before some islands in the center so that we would be on river right before the islands ended. When I checked for my maps, I realized they were not with me. I left them under the bridge at the dam!!!! We didn't try to go back to get them. We sprinted across the river noticing surprisingly little current coming from just below the dam. Two miles down was an access described, as we remembered, as under a railroad bridge. We found a yacht club marina as expected from the maps. Quickly afterward should be the access. We found a railroad bridge on the side of the river with Britches Creek flowing through it. Well, we thought, maybe we were expected to paddle up the creek a bit to find the access. So Sue led the search. The creek was flowing strongly due to a marked drop in elevation down to the river. I paddled under the bridge and had stopped moving due to the flow. Sue was making slight headway and realized we were in a housing development and would come to another bridge. We remembered that was not on the maps. Sue and I were able to turn around and get back to the river. A half mile down was a concrete ramp that led to under a railroad bridge. We found the right one, finally!!! Beyond the bridge was a park with a ball field, a pavilion, and porta potties. The Conservation Department people were on their boat doing their thing talking (I guess) to a kayaker about something! My husband Bill found us through luck and his GPS. We got off the river at 5:00, making nine paddling hours including stops. We proceeded 27 more miles.
We didn't see much wildlife. We DID see a lot of dead fish in the water. Some were small and many were large, probably totaling thirty or so. We don't know the cause of all these dead fish.
The temperature registering in our truck was 96 degrees. We hope the weather cools down a little. We heard that we might have thunderstorms Tuesday. We'll see.
Tomorrow we travel. We are moving the camper down to Tucquan Family Campground in Holtwood. So Bill will have quite a trip bringing us back to Lemoyne, just below Harrisburg to start out on Tuesday.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
June 7, 2008
This next week all three of us are on vacation. Last night we drove to Liverpool, PA with our truck and camper, our dog, our kayaks, etc. Today my husband drove us north to Hummels Wharf which is five miles below Shikellamy State Park. We avoided the Shamokin Dam and the power plant dam a mile or so below it. We started out at around 8:45 with a weather forecast of mid 90's and humid without any rain or storms. We began with light headwinds and still water. The river was relatively open with some islands, getting wider as we went. We ate packed lunch in our kayaks while floating downriver very slowly. After lunch we came into more rocks and some rock shelves that extended the width of the river. It was tricky finding the deepest part to cross the shelves.
We noticed that there was very little erosion and not much debris in trees from high water in the past. BUT, we did pass what was left of a deer carcass eight or ten feet above the water stuck in branches of a tree. We noticed two legs, some skin, and maybe part of a head. We decided it either died in flooding and its body got stuck up in the tree or hunters shot it and stripped the meat off, discarding it near the river.
We saw our first turtle today—first of the year. There seems to be much less wildlife the further south we get. We saw Canadian geese, egrets, ducks, an eagle diving for a fish. It still surprises us that we see so little boating activity on the river. But the river is strange in that it can be one mile wide and only a few inches deep in places.
As the heat rose, our energy waned. We only covered 26 miles instead of the expected 31. We got down to an access just 4 miles below our campground at about 4:45. From our campground, the Ferryboat Campsite, to Millersburg across the river, ran the last remaining ferry anywhere along the Susquehanna. It could hold 3 cars and probably 20 passengers. At the campsite, when a white door that was mounted on a tree was turned toward the river, it was a signal for the ferry to cross over. It was a paddle wheeler. The thermometer in our truck read 98 degrees on our ride back to the camper.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
