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.