Down the Susquehanna...

With the 2010 paddling season right around the corner, including the grand opening sale this weekend at Endless Mt. Outfitters in Bradford County, I’ve decided to drag a paddle blade, find the nearest eddy, and slip out of the Marcellus Shale mainstream maelstrom for a bit to focus on the Susquehanna River. I’ll continue to follow the MS ploy and comment whenever I deem it necessary and/or appropriate, but with all the other very capable folks focused on this issue, I believe my singular voice in the wilderness will not be missed for the next few weeks.

The Susquehanna is one of the most ancient rivers on earth. Depending on which book you read, it’s been flowing some of its present course for somewhere between 60 and 300+ million years. With a recent facelift and other fluvial alterations thanks to the last Ice Age, the Susquehanna River we view today flows pretty much the same course it did not too long after the glaciers retreated some ~15,000 years ago. A few more islands here, a few less there, but I’m sure Etienne Brule would ( hopefully ) recognize the Susquehanna between Sayre and the Chesapeake Bay, provided we got rid of all the dams, sewage outflows, levees …and orange stained rocks. Okay...we’ve screwed it up royally, but it still contains less than pure water and flows directly to the mercury and PCB-laden sea. We should take full credit for that.

Anyway, sometime this year I will surpass 2,000 miles paddling on the Susquehanna. My longest one day trip in 2004 – from ~Tunkhannock to south of Berwick - covered 62 miles, and could have probably exceeded 80 miles had we not stopped for a top-notch rooftop breakfast in West Pittston, PA. I’ve paddled in snow squalls, torrential downpours, record heat and humidity and into headwinds that created 2’ whitecaps, yet have managed to only go swimming twice over the last 13 years. I can describe the symptoms of both heat stroke and hypothermia, having experienced both while on the river in 2005 and 2009, respectively. The river changes its demeanor as water levels rise and fall, and rapids that require significant skill and concentration to safely maneuver at low levels are reduced to a swift and bouncy ride after a few days rainfall. Some islands can be passed on both sides all year round, while others require an up to the minute knowledge of river levels and unseen obstacles that only an experienced river rat ( and the USGS website ) can provide. The only section of the river I try to avoid or pass through quickly has always been the site of the 1959 Knox Mine Disaster along the eastern bank of the river near Pittston, PA. Now that I’ve read Down the Susquehanna to the Chesapeake by Jack Brubaker, I hope to avoid that spot altogether on future trips. I am shocked at the continued instability of that area, and with imminent hydrofracturing of the much older and deeper Devonian shale layer in Luzerne County, who knows what could happen at that artificially and shoddily repaired hole in the river’s bottom at any time in the future. Like say….this June?

Details in a future post.

Due to record snowfall in eastern PA, my three kayaks have been dry-docked this winter. If things work out this weekend, I think I’ll be taking one out for an evening spin at Mauch Chunk Lake to catch the extremely rare triple conjunction of the Pleiades, Betelgeuse and the Southern Cross. If skies are clear and time allows, I hope to get a few good pics of the 2% Milky Way as well.

Have a good day. For me, it’s off to yerk.