If I were to post my thoughts about all of the events of this past weekend in one sitting, I would be pecking away for several hours. Unfortunately, I don't have the time today to get that accomplished.
In a nutshell; the weather was great, the river-level was higher than in most prior years and made for fairly easy paddling through some of the normally slower spots, and although I heard after the fact that at least one person went swimming - i.e. capsized - and lost her car keys, etc., it was an overall fun event for all that participated...so much so that several folks decided to slow down their paddling to a crawl and spend an extra hour or two on the river to enjoy the post-industrial scenery after most paddlers were already having lunch at Nesbitt Park.
Darn those dreaded headwinds.
Anyway, here are a few more captioned pics and other stuff from the Wyoming Valley RiverFest 2013.
Above: The river level at Wilkes-Barre on Saturday, June 22, was between 3.5 and 4 feet.
Below: The river level was definitely higher than most prior trips, but still very safe.
Above: I dropped off my kayak ~two hours before the first bus arrived.
Above: Once the buses offloaded the caffeinated hordes, the lines for the two Porta-Potties grew rapidly.
Above: The hustle & bustle at the AppleTree PFBC access site.
Above: Looking upstream. Even though we were among the last to put-in, by the time we passed under the Coxton RR bridge, we had paddled by 75% of the flotilla without much effort.
Above: Our first planned stop at West Pittston.
Below: My view from the stern of my 3-person kayak. Was that an Eagles logo I spotted?
Above: The bow & drummer's chair of a Dragon Boat. Pretty cool
Below: Dragon Boat team training on the Susquehanna
Above: The scene at Nesbitt Park
Below: The front half of my modular 3 person kayak
All in all, another great paddling trip on the Susquehanna. Thanks to my longtime RiverFest paddling partner and fellow blogger Mark Cour and his grandson Zachary for joining me yet again.
Next year, Zack will be old enough to get his own paddle and help us older guys. Alas, I will miss that horn...
Before I close out this post, I would ask everyone who visits to please check out this front page article from the local Wilkes-Barre Times Leader. I am going to address several comments from the article - at length - in the next post or two, allowing Mr. Cotrone just a little slack for the remote possibility that he was seriously misquoted. I know from prior experience it happens from time to time, except when dealing with two exceptionally precise young ladies at another local paper.
Later.
Why don't people worry about water pollution in the river?
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