July 4, 2007
It's July 4th and we're heading out. The morning weather report for the day said low 70's and maybe showers late afternoon. Sue packed a rain jacket for herself, and when Bill and I picked her up, she gave me one since I optimistically didn't pack one. Sue and I were dropped off at the River Park in Kirkwood, NY and we were on the river by 9:00 am.
The Susquehanna River was lower than it had been four days earlier. Southern Tier New York and Northeast Pennsylvania were going through some drought days early this year. Usually we have very little rain in August—not early July. Ten minutes into our paddling, it started to drizzle, so on went the rain jackets. We went through Kirkwood where we saw a lot of riverfront houses damaged by flood water. A few were even moved off their foundations. After Kirkwood we went through some farmland and some residential areas until just outside of Binghamton.
A little before lunchtime, just on the upriver edge of town, we encountered the Rock Bottom Dam. The water dropped about four or five feet over the dam. We got out about fifty yards upriver from it, attached our dollies, and walked our kayaks along a dirt road/parking area to twenty yards past the dam. We dug out our lunch and sat on some rocks to eat. Thankfully the rain had stopped. There was a young fisherman standing below and about ten feet beyond the dam in about three feet of water. He reeled in his line and walked to shore and talked to us for a while. He said he had caught and released several small mouth bass. Another fisherman arrived and walked over to the three of us. He told the other man that he liked to stand just beyond the dam and try to cast into the water right below the pouring water. Fish liked to stay there because the water was relatively still directly below the dam. Obviously the only time this kind of fishing could happen was when the water was low.
The fishermen went out into the water, and we got back in our kayaks anticipating another dam and three pipelines within the next five miles. There was a pipeline less than a mile ahead located just before the Chenango River pours into the Susquehanna. We walked the kayaks through low water and gravel bars to get around it. The next obstruction was similar and we just waded through low water pulling our kayaks along.
The second pipeline required us to carry the kayaks over river rocks that were too large for us to use the dollies, so we carried them one at a time to the other side of the obstruction. It was only had about an eighteen inch drop, but we didn't try to go over it.
The rain began to come down heavier and steadier, but we didn't mind because the temperature seemed to be in the high sixties so we weren't cold. We always wore hats with brims so the rain stayed off our glasses. We were the only people on the river.
There were very few ducks on the water. What we saw were mergansers and a few mallards.
The next obstruction was the Goudy Dam. The 1980's maps that I had told us to get out of the river directly under the left end of the railroad trestle and portage beyond the dam. They also warned about lengths of steel sticking out of the water just beyond the dam. When we pulled up on shore, we noticed that the water had a black inky look to it. The edge of the water had funny colored algae on the underwater rocks. On closer inspection, there were inky portions that seemed heavier than the river water and tended to settle in indentations on the silty bottom. Neither of us wanted to step out of our kayaks into that water. But we had to. We pulled the kayaks up out of the water and then walked under the trestle and through trees and down a bank to an area past the dam. We figured out the best route to dolly the kayaks. We then went back and attached the dollies. It was difficult pulling the kayaks through the trees. Sue and I had to maneuver each one with Sue at the front and me at the back, lifting them when they got stuck on roots. At the edge of the bank, Sue lost her balance, but was able to stop herself from falling down the three or four feet. When we finally got past the dam, we realized that the only way to get back into the river was to wade through a stagnant pool of water. I started walking the kayak through, and by the time I got to the middle of the pool of water, I was wet up to my hips. And the water was nasty and inky. Sue followed me across, and then across a rocky gravel bar, and finally to the river's edge. We quickly got into our kayaks and paddled away from that yucky area. Within fifty yards, the water was back to normal with no discoloration.
Soon after that we crossed over a pipeline that was underwater enough that we just paddled right over it.
Someplace between Johnson City and Vestal we came upon a large island in the middle of the river. The bottom of it was rock. It was high, probably forty feet high, and had a one story building on top. There were large domed skylights in the roof. We didn't see any lights on inside and thought there would have been since the day was dark and dreary. We noticed that on the left side of the island up on the top about fifty feet from the house was a cable system across the river to the shore. There were two cable cars on the shore side—one small enclosed one for people, and one larger open rectangular one for supplies, etc. We also saw a piece of heavy equipment on the top of the island that looked like a bucket loader. There were no people anywhere so we don't know if the island is still inhabited. Sue took two pictures, but it was so dark and rainy that we don't know if they will turn out. She hasn't developed them yet. We just don't know what we'll encounter in our explorations.
When we thought we were about an hour or so from Grippen Park in Endicott, NY, we stopped under a highway bridge and called Bill to come get us. After the call, we paddled on. The rain almost instantly became much heavier. It was coming down so hard that it was causing bubbles on the surface of the river. We hit some light headwinds, but they weren't real strong. About a half hour from our destination, Sue saw a lightning flash in the sky ahead of us. I didn't see it. Another ten minutes she saw another one. We decided that since they were flashes and not streaks, we would keep going. We stayed very close to shore, though. According to the old maps, the deeper side of the river was on the left shore, but the park was on the right shore, so we went through some scraping sessions. We didn't see anything that looked like a park. We finally stopped on shore where the bank was very low and walked through thin woods looking to see if we saw anything that looked like a park. We came out of the woods into a field and saw a large building. It was an indoor skating rink that I had read was at Grippen Park so we knew we had found our destination. We walked toward a pavilion that had some picnic tables under it and then noticed a boat ramp. So we then went back to the kayaks and walked them along the shore to the ramp. We took cover at the pavilion and I called Bill to see how close he was. He said he was right outside the park looking for a way in. It was still pouring rain.
He arrived a couple of minutes later and backed down the boat ramp and we loaded the kayaks and paddles into the back of the truck. Bill had noticed a police car outside the park that had followed him in. When he saw Bill loading the kayaks and then saw the two of us soaked to the skin, he must have decided that everything was fine and he left. He was just doing his job and checking out why someone was going into the park during such a terrible rainstorm.
Bill had brought dry clothes for us, so we changed in porta potties and then headed for home. Just about all of July would not be available for kayaking because Bill and I had things going on every weekend and Sue's father was having surgery on the 24th. We'll talk again at the end of the month.
