Pretty much since we moved to Scranton nine years ago, Matt has wanted to paddle down the Lackawanna River. Every time he brought this up, I said something like "You want to paddle down the River of Poo? You want to dodge rusty upended shopping carts in our canoe, and discover that the thing you thought was a duck floating up ahead is really just a baby diaper? And then we'll die in an old partly disassembled concrete dam, after having been gored by a jagged fender? But why?"
Then yesterday morning, I was so grumpy that I said yes. Sometimes that happens. Matt researched our route and found there were no Known Obstacles, like dams, and while he couldn't promise there would be no poo, well, you can't deny a man his dreams forever.
We put the canoe on top of the truck, dropped our bicycles off at the spot we would take out of the river, and drove up to the put-in point. We put our life jackets on and paddled off on our adventure. I will just tell you the highlights.
First, while there was that sudsy sewage smell I am not real fond of, the river was actually quite pretty and cleaner that I'd expected. Second, a little chipmunk swam in front of our boat and chugged to the other side as fast as he could, across waves and tiny rapids! He made it! I squealed because I didn't think he ever would, and I was so relieved when he did. And third, we saw merganser ducklings. The tiniest one was the one I wanted, but it didn't want to get in the canoe.
When we got out, we hopped on our bikes and peddled back up to the put-in point, collected our truck, returned for canoe, and headed home. It was so fun I'd do it again.
3 comments:
I'd do it again, too! And even a first time! And oh my garsh, that image of a chipmunk battling the current has me swelling.
I had no idea chipmunks could swim.
omg, chipmunks swim?!
Post a Comment