Summary Post

My friend Sue and I kayaked the full length of the Susquehanna River in segments over two summers in 2007 and 2008. I recorded the journal here.

At the bottom of each day, click on the "Newer Date" to read through the trip in order.

To read from the beginning, click here.

June 12, 2008

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.

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!!

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.

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.

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.

May 26, 2008

May 26, 2008 – Memorial Day

Sue and I slept in. We got up about 7:30. The night before was comfortably cool and our neighbors were quiet by 11:00 pm last night. We ate cold cereal and hot chocolate for breakfast, then packed up everything and organized our kayaks and pushed off by 9:20. There was light headwind immediately. The ten miles to Danville were uneventful. The water was easy. There were occasional boulders. Once in a while we encountered a shelf that would run almost all the way across the river. Usually there was a good area to get thru along one edge or the other of the river.

We took a short break of about ten minutes, so by 12:30 we were on our way again. It was 11 miles to Shikellamy State Park in Sunbury. The headwind picked up substantially and slowed us down. The last 7 miles were very difficult. If we paused just to rip open a Slim Jim or to take a drink of water, we lost ground. Then it took such effort to get the momentum back and start moving forward again. As we got to within 4 miles of Sunbury the wind became so strong that we had sets of two foot waves rolling toward us. Some would catch us with the kayak nose down. Thank goodness we had the skirts on the kayaks. Sue did get one wave that went beyond the skirt and hit her, but she didn't take very much water. I think maybe the rear of my kayak was a little heavier because I had my sleeping bag and pad in the stow compartment there and I had the tent and tarp in a dry bag held with straps on top of the compartment area. I didn't nose into the waves quite as deeply as Sue did. The waves didn't ever get to the end of my skirt.

Shikellamy State Park is on the downriver end of an island that's about 1-1/2 miles long. It is almost in the middle of the Susquehanna. We were going to get out of the river on the right side of the island. Once we got past the beginning of the island, the waves weren't as bad. The water was just choppy. The wind seemed less there also. We still got some big waves but they were from boats.

We landed at the boat access at 4:30. It was the most physically exhausting day we have had yet. When we slid up on the ramp, my kayak was getting pounded with the choppy water hitting the downriver side. I was pretty wet by the time I got out and pulled the kayak up higher on the ramp. Then Sue's kayak got hit with the stuff my kayak protected hers from. She got out a little wet. Bill arrived within 5 minutes of my calling him on the cell phone. That was great!! Our arms and shoulders were aching. Once we got loaded into and onto the Jeep Liberty, our first stop was for hamburgers, fries, and a large drink.

Our continuation down the river will start June 7^th. On the night of the 6^th we will leave Forkston with Bill, his big truck, our camper, and our new Australian Shepherd puppy Jasper. We will go to the Riverboat Campground in Liverpool and stay a few days there while Sue and I paddle about 60 miles, and then we'll move south with the camper to a campground about 30 miles from Havre de Grace, Maryland.

May 25, 2008

Bill drove Sue and I from Forkston to the Union Access. We launched at 8:25 with mid 40's temperature and a clear blue sky. We immediately encountered headwind that stayed with us all day in varying strengths. We averaged about 3-1/2 miles an hour today compared to yesterday which was close to 4-1/2 miles an hour with stops for lunch and breaks. Also today we were packed to stay overnight in Bloomsburg, so each of us probably carried an additional thirty pounds.

Soon after we passed Shickshinny, we noticed on river left a young antlerless deer starting to swim across the river which at that point is probably a quarter mile wide. The only part of the deer out of the water was the head. The deer got about a third of the way across, looked upriver and saw us coming, and turned around to head for shore. We were surprised to see it attempting to cross such a wide river. He came ashore and clambered up a steep treed embankment and was gone.

At Shickshinny we saw two plumes of steam rising from the Berwick power plant. We paddled on and on and on and finally got even with the plant. A large amount of power lines crossed above us. About a half mile further downriver, four or five humming high voltage lines crossed above us. If we had a fluorescent tube with us, it would have glowed.

There was a long section of quiet water with light headwinds. The area was rural. As we got closed to Nescopeck Falls, we went over several shelves that stretched just about all the way across the river. In Nescopeck there is a bridge that has “Nescopeck Falls” directly under it. We were warned that if the water level at Bloomsburg was less than two feet, it would be very hazardous. In the morning the river gauge showed 3.05 feet, so we ventured forth. We were told by Dave Buck of EMO to stay to the extreme river right immediately after passing the last island before the bridge. Our map directed us to paddle left of that island. So it turned out to be a difficult sprint in heavy current to get us very right before the bridge. As we went under the bridge we had to maneuver between the far right bridge support and numerous boulders just right of that support. We squeaked through and then paddled through more boulders and more current. We were glad to get that behind us because the rest of the trip, including Monday, should be in quiet safe water.

We then ate lunch at a very busy boat access called Test Track Access. We have no idea why it's called that. We then paddled along fighting more headwind.

At around 3:30 we spotted an access with a bathroom and we landed. We met a couple with an adult daughter who had just gotten off the river with their kayaks. We exchanged stories of river adventures for probably a half hour. It was a nice break.

We arrived at Indian Head Campground at 5:10 pm. Another 28 miles done. We set up camp, cleaned up, had dinner, wrote in the journal, and went to sleep.

May 24, 2008

We're back at it!

Started at Harding Appletree Boat Access at 7:50 am. It's downriver from Falls. My husband Bill dropped us off and the plan is for him to pick us up at Union Access just upriver from Shickshinny. At the start the temperature was about 43 degrees and the sky was relatively clear. It was our first time in the kayaks this year. The river is flowing nicely and the trip is 28 miles long. We paddled five miles in the first hour; it was the fastest time we had experienced yet. We had a tailwind probably 75% of the time.

After about two hours the Lackawanna River emptied into the Susquehanna on river left in the Pittston area. We have heard some people refer to the Lackawanna as the dead river. We can understand! The Susquehanna riverbank on the left side was orange—it stained the rocks, fallen trees, anything along the river's edge. This orange went on for miles, for hours. We believe the orange color is from the two rivers infiltrating coal mines. We passed a rusty, old, we think railroad coal car, on river left. It looked like it might mark the spot of the Knox Mine Disaster. In 1959 the Knox Mine extended under the river. A support column of coal was removed and caused the Susquehanna to pour through the weakened “roof”, flooding the mine and killing a number of men. There was a vortex in the middle of the river—vortex meaning an enormous whirlpool of water filling the mine. To stop the flooding, the rail company and the mine company dumped hundreds of rail cars into the vortex in an effort to stop the flooding. The train cars might have slowed the mine flooding down, but that procedure did not stop it. Finally the mine filled totally, causing the closing of many mine operations.

We passed lots of levees from Pittston through Wilkes Barre. There were many bridges we went under that helped us gear our speed. The maps for the upper section of the Susquehanna River are excellent. They are only about a year old, and we got them from David Buck of Endless Mountains Outfitters in Sugar Run which is in Bradford County.

We stopped in Nesbitt Park in Wilkes Barre for lunch. After lunch the scenery was pretty rural. Hills and trees. We saw Canadian geese, a turtle, a mallard duck family, a merganser duck, a couple Great Blue herons, and an immature eagle.

The only exciting water was the Nanticoke Rapids. We were proceeding well until we encountered a string of low waves heading for us. I nosed into the third wave because of poor timing. Water went over the bow of my kayak but it only got to the end of the water skirt. I stayed dry and continued through the rest of the rapids. Sue, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky. When her kayak nosed into a wave, it broke across the bow and across her water skirt, and hit her in the chest. She didn't panic—just continued through the rapids. Her kayak took on about three inches of water from that one wave. She sat in water for the next two hours until we reached an access. Then she used our hand bilge pump and had it emptied in one minute. Why didn't we use the pump right after the rapids? We could have easily emptied the water on the spot. We won't do that again—hopefully.

We arrived at the Union Access at 3:05 pm—wonderful time for those 28 miles. Bill showed up at 3:30 and we headed home. Over the day the temperature rose to about 62 and the day stayed dry and relatively clear.

September 1, 2007

September 1, 2007

Can you believe, it's Labor Day Weekend already. Even though we haven't had any rain, Sue and I decided to paddle again. The weather is clear and should only go to the mid 70's with no humidity. Sounds perfect. For safe paddling, the Meshoppen river gage should read between 7 and 13 feet, and it read 7.7 feet. So we're just into the range. Bill drove us to Meshoppen and we launched by 7:45 am. There was still mist on the river because of the cool air and warm water. It was so pretty. It made me think of Walden's Pond.

Today is a very exciting one. At Meshoppen we are 233 miles from the end of the Susquehanna River, so the halfway mark of 222 miles is within today's reach. We wanted to be at least halfway by the end of this year. We will make it!!! Our day's goal is the West Falls Access or the Harding Access, both of which will bring us past halfway.

To get away from the Meshoppen Access, we had to walk our kayaks out into the deeper part of the river. Then we were on our way. It was fun paddling through the mist. We passed a couple of fishermen, watching one catch a bass. Beyond the Mehoopany Access is a Procter & Gamble paper products plant on the left hand side. We could hear machinery hum and see some steam coming out of a couple of stacks. It is a very large plant. The section of river from Mehoopany to Tunkhannock eleven and a half miles away is very familiar to Sue and I. Twenty years ago we entered an annual canoe race for a couple of years in a row here. Right behind P & G we walked the kayaks probably a half mile because we picked the wrong side of an island to go around.

We went through two more low areas before we got to an area we call “the doldrums”. It is a long narrow loop that covers almost six miles on the river. The water feels like glue, and one half of the loop always has head winds. Right before the doldrums we spotted four bald eagles playing in the air currents. I took a couple of pictures, but I'm sure the eagles will be too far away to be seen clearly. We saw a large group of about thirty Canadian geese with one white goose and its mate. Those two were the only geese with orange beaks. Maybe they were adopted by the Canadian geese. It seemed strange. We saw several boats in the doldrums area. There's nice deep water through there.

Less than a mile past the doldrums we hit the halfway point—222 miles! It was a great moment!!!

Two miles out of the doldrums, a train passed on the left side. They tooted their whistle and we waved. There are a lot of sections of river in New York and Pennsylvania that railroads follow alongside.

A mile or so before reaching Tunkhannock, there were scattered boulders in the water we had to go around. There were also some that were just under water that, if hit, could roll a kayak over. We had no mishap, but were very careful. We got to Tunkhannock Riverside Park Access just at noon and stopped and had lunch on shore. We were back in the water before 12:30.

I hadn't ever traveled the river past Tunkhannock, and Sue hadn't past Falls. Just past the Route 29 bridge in Tunkhannock we could watch small planes taking off from Skyhaven Airport. Bill is taking flying lessons there but I didn't think he was flying when we passed. About three miles from the bridge there were more boulders in the river. There were a lot of them and we had to paddle very slowly so we had time to maneuver around all of them. At times there just wasn't any open water at all. The water was so low that some islands that were shown on the map actually were connected to the shore.

The general direction of the Susquehanna River from Towanda to Tunkhannock is east, except for the loops in it. From Osterhout which is five miles down river from Tunkhannock, the river heads south. The wind was blowing at around 15 mph from the north, so a lot of the day we had tail wind. The combination of that and cooler temperatures made for a perfect day. From Osterhout to Falls, about six miles, probably 75% of the time we were going through boulder fields as we called them. One time I had looked ahead and the water didn't show any disturbance ( a sure sign of rocks just under the surface), so I stopped paddling to look at the map. All of a sudden I am stuck on the top edge of a giant rock slab that was underwater. I rocked back and forth a couple of times and finally tipped sideways over the lip of the rock. I wasn't constantly vigilant. But I was fine.

At the West Falls Access we found a porta john across the street and availed ourselves. It was 4:00 pm and we decided to go on to the Harding Access which was a little over five miles ahead. The tail wind continued! We came upon a couple of more boulder fields. One was real challenging because most of the boulders were just under water. That one was the toughest, I think.

About a mile up river from the Harding Access, there was a group of islands on the right, and we were afraid that the access was on the right of the islands, so we went along the skinnier side of the river and encountered very low water that we had to walk the kayaks through right at the end of the last island. The access was up further. We arrived at about 5:35 or so. Bill pulled in with the truck just after us. So we paddled 31 miles in a little under ten hours. We did well!

Harding Access is ten miles from Wilkes Barre. The maps say that safe paddling is when the gage at Wilkes Barre reads between 0 and 5 feet and it is at -0.02 feet with no rain in the forecast, so we will wait for higher water. If we get rain in early September we'll have another day or so, but if we don't get more rain we will start again next year. We have 202 miles to go.

August 25, 2007

August 25, 2007

Even though the Susquehanna is still very low, we decided to paddle another day. Since we finished up last time at our campsite, Bill and I stayed overnight Friday night and Sue met us up there at 7:00 am. After enjoying a few donuts and some coffee, we headed out. The weather was expected to be hot, so we had a lot of water with us.

The morning got warm quickly. We saw quite a few great blue herons and some merganser ducks and lots of kingfisher birds. The kingfishers are easily spotted because of their loud squawking noises. We only had two spots on the river before Wyalusing that we had to walk the kayaks through. Around seven miles from the campsite, we stopped at Endless Mountains Outfitters (EMO) in Sugar Run. We made a pit stop and visited with Melody Buck who, with her husband David, runs the outfitters. I also bought the majority of my equipment from them. David had a group of kayakers with him and they were paddling from Hornbrook County Park in North Towanda to Wysox with a stop in Towanda to participate in River Fest, a yearly event. EMO is located on the south side of the river opposite an island. With the low water, Sue and I had to walk our kayaks through some low water at the end of the island to get into the main river.

Soon after we left EMO, we saw four eagles of different ages. There was the distinctive white head and tail of an adult, and the other three were juveniles of different ages. I found this out after referring to my copy of “The Sibley Guide to Birds”. Juveniles don't have white heads or tails for the first three years. It's so good to see the eagles. The eagles were enjoying the updrafts from the river up the banks and ridges, just soaring as comfortably as ever. They were missing from the river's edge for so many years. I believe that they have been recently removed from the “Endangered List”. That's great!

Next on the river is a large bend that's about 6 miles long, and the area is called Quick's Bend. The water was like glue there. There was no breeze, and it was very hot. Two or three miles further was Laceyville. We saw two more bald eagles there. Sue and I decided that we didn't want the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that were packed. When we got to the boat access in town right next to the bridge, we called “Information” on our TracFone and got the number of the Wiser Choice Restaurant in town. We called and ordered cheeseburgers and fries and drinks. I walked up (literally) to Main Street and along the street to the restaurant. I struck up a conversation with a man sitting at the counter and he pointed out the thermometer which was reading 101 degrees outside. From talking to him, we found out that we knew each other. Twenty years ago he had sold my son Ken a car. Small world! Well, I have lived within thirty miles of Laceyville for the past twenty years. Sue has lived nearby probably for forty years. I brought the lunch back to Sue and the kayaks, and we decided to paddle and eat at the same time. We have aprons for the front of the cockpits, and Sue always uses hers because she burns easily in the sun and has to redo her SPF 50 often. I don't burn easily with SPF 15, so I hadn't used mine until lunch time. But it makes a nice table top for us while we paddle.

We had more low water at the downriver end of Laceyville. The cool water was refreshing on our feet. Paddling became difficult because of the heat. The humidity was high too, so we were sweating heavily and felt that we were expending so much energy. Our goal was Meshoppen, twenty-two miles from our campsite, or Mehoopany, three miles further.

Four miles downriver from the Laceyville access was the village of Black Walnut. I know some people who have a camp on the river there. We stopped in and had a nice visit with them in their air conditioned motor home. They also gave us a couple of glasses of water. They did mention that there was a weather warning for thunder showers in the evening. I think our enjoying the visit and the air conditioning was our downfall, though. When we got back out in the sun on the river, we felt exhausted.

Both Black Walnut and the next area called Myo Beach had a lot of houses and trailers along the left side of the river, so there was lots to look at. We saw people fishing and boating. Some were mowing lawns and others were weed whacking. There's limited use of motor boats because the river changes depth very often. Usually in front of the populated areas, there was deep enough water even during drought that a motor boat could get through. Most boats were used for fishing or just cruising around. We didn't see any water skiing or tubing, or even jet skis.

After Myo Beach we decided that if we could make it to Meshoppen, we could make it to Mehoopany. After all, it only meant three miles further! As we proceeded, we began doubting our decision. I felt like my face was radiating heat. And I could feel my heartbeat in my face. Sue was no better. So we called my husband Bill to pick us up at Meshoppen. We live only about twenty minutes from the boat access. We ended the trip at almost 4:00 pm. So the distance was only 22 miles. We had a nice social day—the first of our trips.

It was just as well that we got off the river when we did, because while we were loading the kayaks onto our truck, the sky got darker and there was a heavy wind coming from the Mehoopany direction. When we finished loading, we drove back up to our campsite in Homet's Ferry for Sue's car. When we got there it started to rain hard and there was thunder and lightning. My son Ken and his wife and son and daughter were there playing in the water, and they quickly got out. It was one of those storms where the sun was shining through the rain. It only lasted about fifteen minutes. Sue left, and Bill and I gathered up some stuff from Friday night and left. I couldn't wait to get home and take a long cool shower.

August 4, 2007

August 4, 2007

It has been a whole month off the Susquehanna River. Sue and I both had other plans for four weekends in a row, but we're back! Our plan is to paddle for two days, staying overnight on an island somewhere at the halfway mark.

Bill and I stayed at our campsite in Homets Ferry where the kayaks were, and Sue met us Saturday morning there. Bill drove us up to Grippen Park in Endicott, NY and we launched at 9:00 am. For the weekend the daytime temperatures should be in the mid-eighties and there will be some humidity but no rain. The river is lower than before because there's been so little rain.

Very shortly after starting off, we watched a plane doing “touch and go” at a small airport. He would take off, circle the airport, and land on the runway, but then lift off immediately. We saw him “touch and go” four or five times before we paddled away from the area. Route 17, which is a four lane, 65 mph highway, followed the river for around ten miles, so we had traffic noise for hours. We did see several groups of mergansers and occasional great blue herons. We had to watch for changes on the surface of the water because large rocks were hiding just below. In some areas the river was so shallow that we couldn't paddle through. We had to wade, pulling the kayaks behind us. Sometimes we dragged them over river rocks. The kayaks were heavy, also, because we had packed for an overnight stay with sleeping bags, a tent, a tiny stove, a mess kit, food, etc.

At lunchtime we entered the Owego, NY area and would go under a bridge. The river was wide but so shallow that we climbed out several times to walk through low areas. In fact we walked under the bridge. Finally about a quarter mile past the bridge the river got deeper so we floated along and ate lunch. Sue had the small cooler mounted on the top of the back end of her kayak, held in place with bungee cords, and I had a plastic box with snacks located on the floor of my kayak right behind my seat. So we moved next to each other and got the food out. I was able to open the cooler and unload what we wanted. There was a slight downriver breeze, so we even floated in the right direction while we ate.

The maps from the 1980's stopped right after Owego so we felt like Lewis and Clark, not knowing anything about what was ahead. We had somewhere around ten or fifteen miles until we got to the Pennsylvania border. Actually it turned out to be a rather boring stretch of river—not a lot of twists and also not a lot of houses. Finally the river has turned from heading west to southwest. The hours passed and we still hadn't reached the border. We also had some head winds which slowed us down since the river didn't have much of a flow.

Our goal was to reach an island in Athens, PA that was privately owned but donated to the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources for use by paddlers. It had no amenities; it was just an island in the middle of the river. Our next choice was a campground in North Towanda right on the river that was about 12 miles past the island in Athens. I had bought new updated river maps of the North Branch Susquehanna River from Dave and Melody Buck who run Endless Mountains Outfitters in Sugar Run. They sell canoes and kayaks and all accessories, and they also rent kayaks and canoes and drive people to drop-off points so they can paddle down the river and back to the EMO site. The maps cover the river from the Pennsylvania border near Sayre, PA to Sunbury where the West Branch joins the North Branch. The maps are so informative. They show danger areas, boat access points, parks and campgrounds and their amenities, food locations, restroom locations, and much more. There are mile marks on the maps at each mile. There's even latitude and longitude shown.

When we finally got to the Pennsylvania border it was already 7:00 pm. There were lots of people standing in the river fishing. Sundown is a good time for that. We talked to some and they were catching small mouth bass. We saw more great blue heron and mergansers and an occasional egret. Since it would be getting dark soon, we decided that the island in Athens would be our stop. We had five miles to paddle. There was more interesting scenery because we went through Sayre and right into Athens.

We finally got to the island at almost 9:00. The kayaks were brought into the island somewhat so they weren't right on shore. The tent was set up higher up into the island on a flat spot that was covered with small, smooth river rocks. We both brought sleeping bag pads so the rocky spot was okay. Sue started heating water to reconstitute our dehydrated lasagna meal while I brought stuff into the tent. We had eaten, cleaned up, set up beds, washed up and gotten into bed by 10:00. Since the island is right down river from the Athens bridge right in town, we had lots of noise to contend with. Someone was playing music so loud that we could hear the words of the songs, and that went on until 2:00 am. There were fire truck horns, train rumblings, traffic noises and voices. I guess it wasn't too bad, though, because I couldn't hear any rustling in the bushes right outside the tent. We slept poorly and woke up feeling stiff from all the physical effort of Saturday.

After a breakfast of cold cereal and coffee and a sweet snack, we packed up and launched by 8:30 am. There was a mist on the surface of the river that was just rising and dissipating. We tried to get a picture of this mist, but it didn't show up. The paddling was very pleasant. The river goes through a slight gorge for a while so there was nothing much along the way except trees. We saw occasional houses built up on top of a ridge on the right side of the river. About 7 or 8 miles downriver we had reached the Ulster Bridge. In June of 2006 there was some major flooding in northeast Pennsylvania and the Ulster Bridge was damaged. We didn't know if we would have to portage around. When we got there, we pulled out at a boat access on the right side right next to the new bridge. We climbed up to the roadway and walked out on the new bridge to figure out how to get through. The bridge wasn't open yet. The cars were traveling on a temporary bridge. We saw that we would have to immediately paddle over to the other side of the river and follow that edge until the river got deeper.

The next town was Towanda. There was a small bridge, then a railroad bridge, and then a large bridge all within two miles. That area was also riddled with islands. It was very slow going because of gravel bars and low water. Several times we walked the kayaks. No sooner were we back in them paddling, then we were back out walking them. The river is very wide at the large bridge, and it was hard to figure out the best way through. We decided to stay in the middle.

Everything was going fine until about a quarter mile below the river Sue shouted to me, Don't go this way.” But I was directly behind her and had no choice. She was grounded on rocks and could not move. I passed slightly to her left and slipped by her and then saw that we were on a gravel bar and that I was going over the edge. There was a six inch drop that luckily took me into a pool of water. If I had gone over the edge into shallow water, I could have ended up nosed into the bottom of the river still stuck on the edge. I looked back and found that Sue's kayak had turned so it was parallel to the gravel bar edge. She climbed out and tried to move it. The water was very shallow, but also flowing very strongly over the edge. She couldn't move it. It tipped down on the upriver side and quickly filled with water. She started to bail and it again tipped and refilled. I pulled up to shore and ran upriver to where I could cross the deep pool area. In the meantime she somehow got her kayak over the edge and into the deep water. I was trying to walk toward her on the rocks in the flowing water, and she was trying to pull her kayak upriver in the deep water while walking along the edge of the bar. She couldn't pull the mostly submerged kayak against the current, so I told her to just let go of it. She did and we saw that it was moving toward shore where my kayak was. We scrambled upriver over the rocks to get to a shallow area to cross the deep pool to get to shore. Then Sue ran along the rocky shore and reached the kayak and pulled it onto some rocks. She then chased down her paddle which was a little further down the river by the shore. We do have a hand bilge pump, but left it home because we thought we wouldn't need it with the river being so low. We won't leave it home again! We used a cup and a one quart water bottle to bail the kayak. After bailing a little while we were able to pull it up further on shore and then tip it sideways to remove more water. We bailed, moved, and tipped several times until we were able to roll the kayak upside down on the rocks—after we removed the cooler. Once it was empty, we repacked the dry bags and cooler. She had a vinyl bag of things that could get wet, and that looked like a giant water balloon. So we drained it and repacked it also. We were on our way again.

Two miles downriver was a boat access in Wysox. Again, several places in that two miles we were walking the kayaks through low water. We also noticed that after that incident in Towanda, we really felt exhausted and our arms were sore. There was a seasonal snack shop a half mile walk from there. Sue volunteered to get us some hot dogs and drinks for our 3:00 lunch, and sat at a picnic table and watched the boats. We talked to some people there and ate. Our final goal was the campsite in Homet's Ferry where my husband Bill and I keep our camper for the summer. We looked on the map and realized it was twelve miles away. We figured the earliest we could arrive there was 8:00 pm. I called Bill and asked him if he would meet us there to help haul the kayaks up the beach and the 25 step stairway to the campsite. He said he would.

That twelve miles was an exhausting trip. The boat access in Towanda was not even out of sight, and already we were out of the kayaks because of low water. That happened several times along the way. We were exhausted. At one point Sue paddled right into the side of my kayak. She said she was in a resting trance and had her eyes closed. That's exhausted! Also, both of us had traveled that stretch of the river a couple of times previously so it wasn't new. Once a fish leaped out of the water and almost ended up in my kayak. That woke us up.

About two miles upriver from our campsite there was a large island and I told Sue I thought it was the one right before a boat access in Homet's Ferry. I said that we could go up the left side of the river. It should be deep enough, and the other side had very large boulders scattered around that didn't look very promising. Well, we ended up walking out kayaks about a half mile through low water. A lot of the time we literally dragged them over the rocks in the river. The water got a little deeper finally and we decided to try to paddle through it. While we were getting back into our kayaks we looked ahead downriver and saw three deer crossing from the island to shore. They were knee deep in water. We got in our kayaks anyhow and were able to paddle to the end of the island where we noticed that we were joining a very strong flow of water coming from the other side of the island. Maybe the other side of the island would have been better after getting past the boulders. Who knows!

The paddling the last two miles was easy. No shallows. After we turned the final bend before the campsite, we saw a light up ahead. Bill had put a light on shore at our trailer site! What a wonderful sight! We got out of our kayaks at 8:10 pm. It was a long day.

Sue and I decided that we're not getting back on the river until the water rises some. I don't know when that will be. Our goal for this year is halfway down the 444 mile length. According to the maps we have 255-1/2 miles to go. We plan to paddle at least to Tunkhannock, where Sue lives, which will bring us just past halfway. Now we wait for rain to raise the river.

July 4, 2007

July 4, 2007

It's July 4^th 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 24^th. We'll talk again at the end of the month.

June 30, 2007

June 30, 2007

We started out from Windsor, NY on a 60's sunny day. The weather forecast mentioned 15 mph winds from the northwest, and the day should remain sunny and in the high 70's.

We paddled past a fisherman who was standing in thigh high water. He said that he had caught a released four or five small mouth bass that were twelve to fourteen inches long. He was having a good day.

The river meandered through farmland with occasional homes. Because of little rain, the Susquehanna was very low. This area of the river loops down into Pennsylvania and then back up into New York a couple of miles before Kirkwood. In fact, one town at the bottom of the river loop is named Great Bend. Ten miles down river from our start for the day is the Oakland Dam in Susquehanna, PA. The river is wide there with steep banks on both sides. Sue and I had driven up to the dam area in the spring to take a look. At that time, with the river much higher, the water rushed over and dropped probably ten feet. There was a Penelec (electric company) building on the downstream right side at the dam, and we decided that that was the side of the dam we would portage on.

We arrived in Susquehanna just at noon, and Sue found a less steep spot in the bank which we used to get the kayaks out of the river. We found a spot of grass without duck feces to sit and have lunch. We had chicken spiedie hoagies and chips that Sue brought. They were delicious. We then attached the dollies to the kayaks and walked them close to a half mile along a small road that paralleled the river to a point beyond the dam.

The bank there was steep and rocky and went about fifteen feet down. Then it flattened out some for twenty feet to the water's edge. Sue climbed down to the bottom of the steep part and I lowered the empty kayaks to her using the ropes that were tied to their bows. Then I tossed the water bottles, snacks containers, and paddles to her. I climbed down and we carried the kayaks across the rocks to the water. We spent a full hour from getting out of the water to putting back in beyond the dam.

We saw our first great blue heron today. In our neck of the river there are lots of heron, so I was surprised it took so long to see our first. Great blue herons remind me of pterodactyls!

In a few miles we went through the Great Bend area and then the river turned north-northwest. We were about seven miles from Kirkwood. That's when we hit headwinds. We sure weren't going 3 mph anymore. That was the average speed of the previous miles. At times we had waves rolling upriver, and some had whitecaps. If we stopped paddling we lost ground. And the paddling took much more effort.

We went past a pontoon boat that was moving very slowly and two people on jet skis were circling it. They all seemed to be having a fun afternoon. Generally we didn't see any boats on the river. I guess it's because there aren't enough areas of the Susquehanna that had consistently deep water. Our kayaks could just about go anywhere, though.

Around 3:30 pm I called my husband Bill to say that we wouldn't make River Park in Kirkwood by 5:00 pm. He told me he was scheduled to take a training flight in a Piper Cub at the airport in Tunkhannock, PA (about an hour south) at 4:00 pm and wouldn't be up to Kirkwood before 6:00 pm. I said that would work out great because it would give us more time to get to Kirkwood. So we continued to trudge along. At times the wind subsided when the river turned, but mostly we were working hard to move forward.

As we entered Kirkwood, we started looking for the park. We saw a car and two people and a dog on a gravel bar near shore under a bridge and asked them where the River Park was. They said it was right there. I asked where the boat access was, and the man said to follow him. He got into his car, and we followed him in our kayaks as he drove along the gravel bar. Then he turned toward shore and drove through the water to the boat ramp. The water was about five inches at the deepest point. We paddled to the end of the gravel bar and got out and walked our kayaks through the water to the ramp.

The River Park was so nice. There was a large pavilion with lots of people having picnics. We saw a ball field. And we saw porta potties!! We used the facilities and then carried the kayaks up to some grass by a nearby parking lot. Almost immediately we saw Bill show up in our truck. Perfect timing! I think we spent ten hours on the river.

Sue had no plans for Wednesday, July 4^th and neither did we, so that will be our next date.

May 28, 2007

May 28, 2007 – Memorial Day

Bill and I and our Australian Shepherd Buddy started out with Sue and our kayaks and our camper on Thursday night, May 24^th at about 6:00 pm. We arrived at the KOA Campground in Franklin, NY at close to 9:00 pm. On Friday morning we had a leisure breakfast and talked about the river; finally Sue and I launched from the New Milford boat access at about 10:15 am. The boat access is actually on a large shallow pond that is used for fish spawning. It was alive with large carp splashing and jumping and doing their thing. There was lots of seaweed too. We enjoyed paddling real slow through the chaos. There was a tiny shallow neck that took us out to the river.

The weather was wonderful—temperature in the 60's and slightly overcast looking like it would clear.

The river was starting to widen and was flowing nicely. There were still a lot of twists and turns. It was amazing to see so much erosion from higher water. At times the banks of the river were a couple of feet high, but at other times they were as much as sixty feet high. It was rare that both sides were the same height. Usually one bank was at least a few feet higher than the other. The erosion caused trees to become uprooted and slide down the banks and into the river. We had to be vigilant because the twists and turns caused the trees to get blocked up and limited our ability to get around them.

The stretch of river above Portlandville became less twisty and was quiet and picturesque. There were lots of birds singing and several kinds of ducks and geese swimming. In Portlandville, just after going under a bridge, a man in his backyard told us that he saw a bald eagle just ahead of us on a tree by a little inlet, but it wasn't there when we went by.

Goodyear Lake, which was formed by damming the river, was slow going. We paddled harder just to stay moving forward because of head winds. There are surprisingly shallow areas in the middle of the lake too. The portage at the dam at the end of the lake was very difficult. We attached our dollies to the rear of our kayaks and dragged them up a steep path that was pretty smooth except for occasional small rocks. I was panting when I got to the top. I thought the worst was over until I started down the other side. The kayak was trying real hard to push me down the hill. Maybe it would have been easier if I let the kayak lead and just hang onto the rope following it down the hill. There was no water going over the dam, so when Sue and I got to the bottom, there was a trickle of water that we pulled our dollied kayaks through until it finally joined the water from the spillway. We had sandwiches and water for lunch while quietly floating down the river.

The Susquehanna picked up speed after we went under an Interstate 88 bridge, and in a particularly narrow area I paddled over a submerged log that was parallel to my kayak, and the kayak rolled to the right and over. I had put an apron over the front of the cockpit in the morning to stay drier and to keep the sun off my legs, and that apron ended up around my waist. I had my paddle and a half paddle (each of us carried a half of a paddle with us in case we lost our paddle in just such an event) in one hand and I was holding onto the upside down kayak with the other hand. I couldn't touch bottom and was still moving along with the current. Sue yelled to me not to put my legs down to try to touch because I could come across a submerged boulder and could possibly break a leg. I was able to slowly head for shore. When I was standing in waist high water, I rolled the kayak over and pulled it close to shore. I tossed my paddles up on land and dragged the water-filled kayak to shallow water, but there was a steep bank and the kayak weighed a ton! So Sue paddled up to me and stayed in her kayak and held onto mine. We bailed it out with a thermos lid and a water bottle. I own a hand bilge pump, but I left it home in Pennsylvania. When the kayak had about an inch or two of water still in it, I got back in and we proceeded to the portage spot for the Oneonta Dam which was only about two miles ahead.

The portage at Oneonta Dam was very easy. I emptied my kayak, including a storage area with a lid at the back end, and then turned it over and emptied the rest of the water. There was probably five inches of water in that storage area. We dollied the kayaks and pulled them up a slight elevation and onto a path to the other side of the dam. Sue talked to a fisherman for a bit, and we were on our way again. The first couple of miles below the dam we heard the traffic on Interstate 88 which kind of ruined the ambiance. The water was fast for those miles and we had to watch. There were submerged logs that surprised us. Before and after Otego we went through a large primarily agricultural area. We went by a falling down drive-in theater and saw a few houses in downtown Otego.

At about 4:30 we approached a public boat launch about a mile below Otego. That was a pre-planned possible end of day spot for us. We just couldn't bring ourselves to stop paddling that early, so we continued on. The next boat launch site was about 9 miles downriver from there.

The next area we were paddling through was Wells Bridge. It was shallow and slow. There were lots of Canadian geese families swimming along the edge of the river. We saw strings with an adult goose leading and four to eight babies swimming right behind, and then another adult at the end of the string. They were so cute. The water had slowed down along with our progress. There was some head wind and we were getting tired. In Unadilla was an old broken dam that we paddled through. Some remaining chunks of cement were as big as four foot square. I scraped across one chunk, but didn't spring a leak.

We finally got to the public boat launch just below Unadilla at 8:30 pm. I had called Bill to meet us there, and he was on the shore with a light because it was getting dark. We accomplished 37 miles that day. In 10 hours. It was so good to see Bill on the shore! We loaded up the kayaks into our truck and drove back to the campground. Sue and I had some chili and showered and we talked to Bill of our adventures and we all went to sleep.

Friday we got an earlier start. We were on the river at the boat launch below Unadilla by 8:30 am. It was another beautiful slightly overcast day in the high 60's and promising to be sunnyand warm. Halfway between Unadilla and Sidney the river splits and we we directed by signs put up by the General Clinton Regatta people to take the left side, but the middle was so low that we got hung up on a gravel bar and had to climb out and walk the kayaks across to the deeper water. Just above Bainbridge a railroad trestle goes across the river and over an island in the middle. We took the right side and encountered eddies and narrow shoots. There were downed trees and sharp turns which caused strong currents that turned us in circles at times. When we got to the General Clinton Park in Bainbridge, which is where the 70 mile race that was being run on Memorial Day would end, we pulled up to a float and climbed up to the park for a look see. There were people selling racing canoes that were made of graphite. Those canoes weighed about four and a half pounds. Our Pungo's weighed 45 pounds. The racing canoes also cost about eight times the cost of our Pungo's. We also saw slightly used racing paddles that cost as much as our kayaks.

Well, after about 15 minutes of sightseeing we were on our way again. We had used the maps put out by the Regatta people to follow from Cooperstown to Bainbridge. I also acquired a fold-up brochure from an outfitter in Binghamton, New York that mapped several day trips on the Susquehanna for the Broome County area (which I later found out was published in the 1980's). The furthest upriver day trip map started in Afton, NY which we thought was about six miles down river from Bainbridge. It actually was more like ten miles. So that was the unchartered part of our day. It ended up being uneventful and slow.

We went through some beautiful country. The river banks weren't very high and we could see longer distances. We didn't see anyone else on the river for miles and miles, though. Because of so many shallow areas, the only safe water vehicles are canoes and kayaks. It's very nice to paddle along relatively silently. We could sneak up on wildlife easier. We saw lots of Canadian geese, some mergansers and mallards, and one ring neck duck. We didn't see any great blue herons. I think I saw one kingfisher. We had an occasional fish jump near us. Again, we saw a lot of erosion. There was one very high bank on the right that had a major dirt and tree slide. There were campers up on the top of the bank right near the edge. The owners were very lucky that their campers didn't end up sliding down the sixty feet to the river.

Once in a while we hit some shallow areas that we scraped a little. And occasionally we found fast water and some trees tipped into the river. At this point, the river was wider, probably averaging forty to fifty feet across, and there were few blockages that we couldn't get around. But the nearer to shore we paddled, the more submerged logs we found, so we stayed in the deeper parts as much as we could. The maps we were using even showed which side of large islands we should go around on. We went through agricultural lands and very small towns.

Around 4:00 we met up with two men in a canoe and started talking to them. One man's name was Rick Shoemaker and I forget the other's name, but he was being shown the river and shown the art of canoing by Rick. Rick told us that he has canoed the complete 444 miles of the river and he directed us to some websites for more maps. We chatted and paddled for probably a half hour. We had decided to get off the river at the Windsor, NY boat access and he said it was about three to five miles ahead. That was good news because we were tired. I had developed a few blisters too. Our shoulders and upper arms were aching. Sue had hurt her lower back a few days before the weekend, and it was complaining very loudly to her. I called my husband and told him to meet us at Windsor in about an hour and a half. The canoe went ahead of us when we stopped to make the phone call. We caught up a while later and asked again how far it was to Windsor and he said it was just around the corner. He then slowed down and we passed him. Well, I think he was confused because we paddled until 6:30 and finally arrived at the boat access.

About 45 minutes before we got done, we came upon an extended family of Canadian geese along the right hand side of the river. I paddled away from that side, and as I was doing that, a very noisy and large adult goose chased me and honked nastily until he decided I wasn't a threat. Then he flew over me and back to shore. I thought he was going to attack me in the kayak. In the meantime Sue continued along the right hand edge by the rest of the family which consisted of three adults and eight to ten little ones. These geese were loudly swimming and running ahead of her. They probably kept that up for thirty yards until they finally headed inland. We were unwelcome intruders.

We again racked up ten hours in the kayaks. And I don't think we had gotten out of them for the last three hours. I had a time just getting upright and out of my kayak. I had to stand still for a bit before I dared try to walk. Rick and his friend arrived at the access a few minutes after us, and he figured we covered probably 38 miles in the ten hours. That's a pretty good rate!

Sue and I have decided, though, that in the future we will limit our paddling to 25 to 30 miles a day and we'll enjoy the river much more. Because of scheduling and such, we won't get back on the river until the weekend before July 4^th, if then.

May 21, 2007

May 21, 2007

Two days ago I began my Susquehanna River kayak adventure.

For the past twenty years I have enjoyed paddling canoes and kayaks occasionally on the Susquehanna River. In fact in the beginning my good friend Sue Sill and I twice entered an annual 13-mile canoe race that went from Mehoopany to Tunkhannock, PA. During that twenty years I thought about attempting to paddle the full 444 mile length of the Susquehanna River which begins at Lake Otsego in Cooperstown, New York and ends in Maryland at the Chesapeake Bay.

Last year Sue and I got to the point of planning the first segment of our adventure. The only way for us to complete the whole 444 miles would be to break it down into several weekends and holiday weekends since Sue works full time. We were going to spend the three days of Labor Day Weekend paddling from just downstream of the Ulster, Pennsylvania bridge to however far we got. We couldn't begin in Cooperstown because the river was closed to watercraft in the Binghamton area due to flood damage to a sewage treatment plant on the river.

In June of 2006 our area got hit badly with heavy rains that caused our creeks to go over their banks. That resulted in mud slides and culverts getting jammed with debris and corrupting roads. The flooding also caused some bridges over the Susquehanna River to get damaged. The repairwork of the bridges many times required paddlers to portage around them. The Ulster bridge was closed so we were going to start just below that point.

We had gathered dollies for portaging around dams, freeze dried meals for suppers, water filters so we could drink the river water instead of carrying lots of water. We would bring a tent, sleeping bags, changes of clothes, food, a backpacker stove, cell phones, hand held ham radios, etc. We had a “dry run” one night just before Labor Day weekend. We loaded the two 12 foot Pungo kayaks with everything we were taking and launched them to see if everything would fit and to see if we could still maneuver them in the water. We had some significant rains the two weeks before and the river was high—so high that the islands we planned to stay on overnight were just starting to show above water. So we cancelled the trip.

We got everything together again this spring and planned to start our adventure at Lake Otsego and hopefully cover 70 miles in two days—Saturday and Sunday, May 19 and 20. My husband Bill and his son Chris drove us up to Cooperstown Saturday morning. We live in northeast Pennsylvania, so the road trip was 2-1/2 hours. Sue and I launched at 9:45 am to the serenade of loons on the lake. It was overcast and 45 degrees. We had layered our clothing and put on rain jackets. The hats we wore had brims to keep the rain off our glasses. We were hoping to get below Goodyear Lake by the day's end which would have been over 30 miles.

The river is nothing more than a creek when it begins, and it had so many twists and turns. We encountered trees half hanging in the river and logs just under the surface. We also found places where trees fell in and debris built up behind them which made the river impassable. We had to pull over and climb out and drag the kayaks up the three or four foot bank and then carry or dolly them and put them back down the bank and into the river beyond the blockage. The edge of the river before the bank generally consists of clay-like silt that you sink into and then can't get your foot out of easily. We tried to find areas that weren't so mucky but were not very successful.

At 11:45 it started to rain.

At noon we found one blockage that had another blockage about ¼ mile after it, and we had to paddle back upstream just to find a place that we could haul the kayaks out and up the bank. We put the dollies on and pulled both kayaks ½ mile through an overgrown farm field that had brush, skunk cabbage and ruts. I found out that my back isn't strong and I fall apart with adversity. Sue did 80% of the pulling of the kayaks. We were out of the water 1-1/2 hours.

The rain never stopped and the temperature never improved. At around 3:00 two canoes passed us. They were practicing for the General Clinton Regatta which is a 70-mile canoe race held on Memorial Day from Cooperstown to Bainbridge. We asked how far Goodyear Lake was and they said 2 to 3 hours away. At that point we realized we hadn't gone very far. We got to the Milford Bridge and planned to go ashore under it and fire up the stove and have some hot tea to try to warm up. We thought we could be out of the rain for a little while. Sue's teeth were chattering. We were soaked. The river was deep right to the edge which made getting out of the kayaks impossible. Up the angled bank under the bridge was 20 feet of muck. So we stayed in the kayaks and studied the map and found out we had only gone 17 miles. And it was 4:15.

Our plan was to look for a place to pull over that didn't have muck where we could set up our tent. We had to get into dry clothes. We started paddling again and I thought I found a beach area we could go ashore. Sue got onshore first and plowed through the muck to firmer ground about 20 feet out. She looked for a place to camp. I got out of my kayak and sank to just below my knees in the sucking clay goo. When I tried to lift my right leg, my left leg went deeper. I couldn't move. I gave up the idea of trying to get ashore and spent ten minutes turning my feet 90 degrees to the left so I could sit down in the kayak and try to release my feet from the goo. Sue figured I couldn't throw the tent and dry clothes up to her so she got back into her kayak. At that point we decided to quit the trip. We didn't know if we would find a place to get ashore. We didn't know if we could get a fire started since it rained all day and was still raining. We didn't know if we would be able to get warm.

We looked at the map and found a boat access point about 6 miles downriver and decided that's where we would go. I called my house at 4:45 and got the answering machine. I called Bill's cell phone and Chris's cell phone and got recordings. Our original plan was to check in with Bill between 8:00 and 9:00 pm, so he didn't have any reason to be home before that. I left messages that we wanted to be picked up and I described where the boat access was on the map. Bill had copies of the maps we carried. He called me back at 5:10. He and Chris had just gotten home. They had gone from Cooperstown to Elmira to take glider rides. He was glad we were OK but wasn't happy about getting back in the truck for the 2-1/2 hour ride back to us. Our lifeline for the first day was too far away. It won't happen again.

We got to the boat access around 6:45. It was a state access in a reforestation area. It had nothing but a parking lot. We walked around a while and realized Bill wouldn't be there for at least another hour. Sue had brought a vinyl tarp with her, so we took it and our dry clothes up to the parking area. I draped one end of the tarp over a 5 foot high sign and held the other end up so Sue could strip out of her wet clothes and get into dry ones. Then she did the same for me. We couldn't put our rain jackets back on because they were soaked through. The rain was a steady, fine mist at that point We took everything out of the kayaks and brought it all up to where our wet clothes were. Then Sue fired up her stove and I had a cup of hot coffee from a coffee bag and she had raspberry tea. We had second cups and some string cheese. The dry clothes and shoes, and the hot drinks got us warm. We walked the half mile up the driveway to the road with a flashlight and phone and hand held ham radio to wait for Bill. He arrived about 8:15 and we loaded the truck and got home at 11:30 pm.

With everything that happened, we still had some very beautiful moments. We saw lots of birds in the trees overhanging the river, even some turkey vultures. There were mallards paddling along the edges along with sandpipers picking in the mud. We saw a field full of llamas. Cows walked up to a fence and watched us go by. Sue thought she saw a river otter. And about a mile from the end we saw a black bear scramble out of the river and up the bank.

We have a better plan for this coming weekend. The three of us will take our camper to a campground between Oneonta and Unadilla Thursday night and stay there till Sunday morning. Sue and I will start again at that boat access near Milford Friday morning and hopefully take out at a boat access 30 miles downstream Friday evening. Then we'll kayak as far as we can on Saturday. Sunday we'll go home because Bill has to work Memorial Day. The weather will be in the 60's and 70's with some scattered thunderstorms. But who cares? We have a dry camper close by.