Lock 60 Loop

After waiting more than a month I was finally able to get out on a Wednesday paddle with Doug and his crew through Kelly's Canoe & Kayak. It's a deal you can't beat. $10 gets you a kayak, paddle and PFD. Not to mention he brings it right to the put-in.

I gathered most of my gear Tuesday night to be sure I had everything I wanted/needed. Now, when does that ever work out as planned? Yep, you got it...I forgot something. What did I forget, you ask? A bag to carry my stuff on the water. I just wanted something small I could throw my keys etc in. I figured I'd take one of my bags that zips fully and put a gallon size Ziploc in it just in case I'd flip. (Hey, ya never know!)

I'm sitting at school and realize this. Of course, there's nothing I can do at that point. So, I wrack my brain to come up with an alternate. So, here's the scene: I'm sitting at my computer during my lunch and I grab my Nalgene bottle to take a drink while I ponder. Then it hits me--if a water bottle keeps everything on the outside dry when it's full of water, then it will keep whatever is inside it dry when the water is on the outside. DUH!

I check my watch at the end of the day. When bus waves start to get called I gather my school stuff and then get my gear together to change. I head to the faculty bathroom and change my clothes, head back to my room and put in my contacts. (I was amazed that they were cooperating.) Next up get the GPS set up to go, make sure I have the printed directions and Doug's cell number handy (just in case.) Again looking at the clock I drag my stuff up to Rachel's room and check in on my AM announcements for my kiddos. She reminds me that I need to come back from paddling because she doesn't want to have to run band rehearsal on Thursday. Next, it's off to the office to sign out and head to Target to get a water bottle.

Making great time, Target it is and there's even time to stop at Arby's for a Roast Beef Gyro for dinner. Heading straight to the water bottle aisle at Target it wasn't hard to pick a Nalgene bottle. Iridescent Green color! Sweet. Then I look for something to use to affix it to my boat. So I head down the next aisle and I come across workout gear and there are weightlifting gloves which look like they'll double as paddling gloves. Awesome! And then the camping aisle had some carabiners. And out of Target, off to Arby's and then back on the road to Mont Clare.

I get down there in great time. (Note on next trip: Don't get off of 29 to go on 113. It takes forEVER.) For a while I sat at the end point on the map, eventually calling home to see if any updates were posted on Facebook about the put-in because there didn't appear to be anyone else around. Sure enough, the map didn't actually take you to the put-in. Time to wing it. I took a chance and headed down the road a bit to the canal road to the parking area. The road is actually between the canal and the river. I packed my new Nalgene bottle and got out of the car and just hung out. Then Doug came down the road with 11 kayaks! There were a bunch of us on the water.

He put me in the Necky Manitou 14 that we'd talked about earlier that day. It was a gorgeous "Pacific Blue" color and the reflective decklines were sweet. This was my first time out on a boat with a skeg. It was okay, but the conditions didn't really make its use necessary. We paddled down the Schuylkill a ways and under a bridge and then around a curve before finding the portage. It was getting dark. I managed to get off the water without flipping the boat and while there was still some light. Dragging the boat across the 200 yards or so of grass and loamy ground really rather sucked.

Then came the put-in on the canal. The water level was really rather low. Some people were sitting on the edge and getting a push, while others shimmied themselves in. I opted for putting the boat in the water and then climbing in similar to working from a dock. I made a friend who helped steady my boat while I climbed in. Then we were off down the canal. While waiting to put-in I affixed my headlamp to my water-filled Nalgene bottle. Being on the water like that it really didn't give enough light so I opted for wearing it. The canal was so cool because I could picture being somewhere other than PA because the trees were hanging in the water and it just looked different. We passed a bar on the water that offered us beer, and a barrel that someone was burning in. There was also a mean-tempered goose heading past us. It was awesome. Just being in the water like that after dark was awesome and the scenery was neat.



Then it was time to take-out......at a dock! Let's recap what ways I know how to enter and exit a kayak through experience. I've been pushed out by someone else, pushed myself out, put it on the water straddled and sat; then getting off has been the beach yourself get out on shore, straddle and step out....and now getting out at a dock! It looks pretty easy on youTube, but in real life the PFD really gets in the way. It was hard to pull myself up because I was getting caught on the PFD. Ugh.



Then I helped with paddles and PFDs and the like. Thanked Doug and headed home giddy as a schoolgirl. It was awesome!!!!!!