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We had a great first day on the river. We departed Theresa’s (after a welcoming overnight stay) and arrived at Condoc Recreation Area in Cumberland, MD where we had lunch before heading downriver. Our takeout car is at the visitors’ center in Williamsport, MD. After all of the recent rains the river has good water levels, providing us with good current and enough depth at all of the “swifts”.
Three hours of paddling brought us to our intended campsite (identifiable by the launch ramp) at Spring Gap. Oh, if only we did not have to carry our gear so far to the campsite, but a table, flat grass tent sites, a water pump, and porta-johns make it all worth while. We have planned relatively easy days (about 10 miles today, 15 miles on full days) to make it a leisurely trip and to accommodate my use of the front-rower instead of paddling because of my torn rotator cuff. The C&O Canal bike path and campsites will provide us with such developed camping areas for our entire trip. Our new Upper Potomac River Water Trail Map series is very helpful.
Rich cooked us a delicious and filling chicken Marsala with mushrooms, rice, and fresh broccoli. (Thank you, Sheila, for precooking the chicken last night.) Jean’s homemade chocolate chip cookies were the perfect dessert. Now we are watching the hundreds of lightning bugs as we grow tired and drift off to our sleeping bags.
We are ensconced in camp at the Paw Paw canoe access, where we arrived about 3:30 PM, our planned 15 miles. The river again treated us to regular stretches of fast water, easy ledge drops, that livened up our paddling day. Jean and Sheila paddled together today and seemed to enjoy the challenge of steering through these areas.
This campground has two other groups, but we have plenty of room for our rowdy crew. Getting here early meant we could haul everything up the steep trail, then leisurely set up camp, clean up in the river, check out the Scotch and wine, harass Rich, and enjoy other such camp activities. There is even entertainment provided by the crew across the campground. They are an eight person group of young (30’s?) men with such oddities as tents on stilts and a one person tent with a giant air mattress. Such phenomena give us endless material for our comments about their possible activities; Terry is at his finest.
Sheila is preparing her pasta, onions, peppers, tomato sauce, black beans, and kielbasa delight. The choice of cook was decided by whose meat was defrosted.
Supper was delicious and filling. Good thing we are outdoors with those beans. Now we are eating smores, using the small fire Rich built. Going home with our clothes smelling of smoke means our spouses will believe we really did go camping. Once again we have lightning bugs and a nearly full moon. Next door the wild, happy, male crew is celebrating the beginning of their canoe trip and a few days free of family responsibilities. They seem to have a cooler of beer for every guy.
We made our 15 miles early again and beating our competition to a great campsite at Devil’s Alley (canal marker 145). With such easy days we were here by 2 PM. Again, that left us plenty of time to bathe and relax in this well shaded camp on a very hot afternoon. The weather continues to be clear, but a breeze helps to keep us comfortable.
A long distance hike that is sharing this large site is going to join us for supper, thanks to Jean’s hospitality. She is preparing her famous quinoa, peppers, onions, and Italian sausage dinner. As usual, we also have a salad, fixed tonight by Sheila and Rich, Jean’s assistant chefs.
The river rolls by 30 feet from us, we are in the shade, the tempting aromas of supper waft toward us, the wine and Scotch are flowing, the camaraderie is excellent; what more could we want?
The answer turned out to be our guest, Jim Casha, an interesting gentleman (late 50’s?), who is both pleasant and fascinating. His 40 day “walk” is for a purpose, garnering support in Congress for a bill to fund research and prevention of fetal alcohol syndrome. One could not ask for a more intriguing dinner companion. We wished him good luck in his endeavors and sent him off with a belly full of real food, a welcome change from the simple dehydrated fare of a backpacker.
Now we can hear the melodic sound of the river rushing by, see the beginning our nightly lightning bug show, and enjoy Rich’s traditional campfire. If only we had phone service, but our spouses knew that parts of this trip are beyond “civilization”.
We are at White Rock campsite, about 18 miles of paddling for the day. Our intended stop was Leopard’s Mill (15 miles), but we could find no path up from the river. Hot and tired, this pleasant site was a welcome refuge. Unfortunately it has an abundance of mosquitos!
The women have gone for a walk. Terry has retreated to the bug free interior of his tent. Ray is checking out the map and planning ahead. River access is our main problem in finding campsites. (Later we met a scout leader on a bicycle checking out campsites, including river accessibility, and noting their exact location on his GPS for a river trip next week.) We have some short days ahead, welcome because my back started bothering me yesterday. I’m all for a 6 mile day tomorrow and 11 the next, part of our new plan.
As usual we have been rotating paddling partners. With my front rower, I have enjoyed a front seat view every day, a new experience for me. Tomorrow I look forward to Sheila as my partner.
Tonight Terry treated us to Ursi’s world renowned goulash (prepared at home and frozen), cheddar broccoli soup, brown rice, salad, and a tempting variety of cookies. We will all gain weight with easy days and huge meals.
This afternoon at Little Orleans we finally had cell phone service and called our spouses who were all happy to hear from us.
The bear bags are hung and we are all relaxing before bedtime. This is the good life.
We are sitting in the shade at Little Pool campsite, about 3 miles downriver from Hancock, relaxing after such a short, 6 mile day. Rich (unknowingly), towed us all for 40 minutes. Even at his old age of 78 we are merciless with our older cousin. I’m sure he will seek revenge. Our new friend, Jim Cash, also stopped here for the day, so we are deep in conversation with him. He took a short day because of sore feet from his new boots. I hope the new super gel insoles I gave him help him to complete his crusade.
We have cell phone coverage again today, a pleasant chance to contact home. They are at least as hot (98 degrees) as we are here, but we lack a thermometer to know the exact temperature.
Ray just took our official trip group photo. We included Jim as an honorary trip member. Of course Jim is invited to supper again. Who wants to live on just oatmeal and Ramen noodles?
We have a few cans of beer after we stopped at Hancock and met the “party” group of men waiting for their shuttle. They offered us some of their leftover beer since their trip was over and we could not buy any with the local liquor stores closed. When we passed them on the river a day or two ago we realized the full extent of their “baggage”. Rich may get ideas from them. They had about two coolers apiece (compared to our one for the whole team), huge Rubbermaid containers of stuff, tiki torches, and even a large gas grill. Two of their canoes were towing rubber rafts of extra baggage. They were a convivial, happy crew whose generosity benefited us.
Jim has been at the center of our circle as we have sat here conversing, moving occasionally to stay out of the sun. By the time today is done we will know his life story. Being open with strangers must be his antidote for his solitary life hiking.
Our new plan is to canoe the 11 miles tomorrow to McCoy’s Ferry (where there is road access). The river makes a big loop just beyond that which the canal towpath cuts off, leaving Ray just a 10 mile hike to Terry’s car. Our original plan was scrapped when we realized that the campsites closer to Williamsport had no river access.
We are sitting under our tarp at McCoy’s Ferry listening to thunder. We have been here an hour after a very hot morning’s paddle (90 +?), cooking in the sun and hopping in the water to cool off. The thunder has stopped for now and, without rain, the temperature will surely head back up. Since we have not had a drop of rain for the entire trip we cannot complain about the weather.
Jean and Sheila are having a Sudoku contest. This will be a lazy afternoon with conversation and our books. We are finalizing plans for morning, Ray’s recovery of the car, and our drive home.
On Tuesday Ray was back so early that we were loaded and ready to go by noon. We stopped a few miles down the road for lunch together at a restaurant, said our goodbyes, and headed for home. Since we were right next to I 81 the ride home was relatively easy, although we did have some violent rain storms on the way, much better than on the river. Now the only question is, where do we paddle next year?
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Copyright © 2013 Scott Clark