Brownstown to 71 - 11 miles

In preparation for the Conestoga River Club’s 2026 two-day sojourn, I paddled what will be the first day of a two-day journey along the entirety of the Conestoga River Trail. Starting at Sylvan B. Fischer Park in Brownstown, I took out at our house just east of Lancaster City for a recorded distance of 11.6 miles - 21 miles short of Safe Harbor where the sojourn will end.  

It was hot. 

I put in around noon in what turned out to be a six-hour trip and it seemed like the sun was high the whole time. Sure, there was some shade later in the day, but by that time I had had enough sun exposure.

I’ve done this stretch numerous times and each of my previous experiences took nearly two hours less. Some of this was due to current water levels and the fact that the river was as much as three feet higher when I have done this trip before. On the day, I also stopped a few times to pick up trash (feed bags, styrofoam, water bottles, etc.) and on one occasion I ran a portion twice to check out multiple routes on a section. 

Overall, I love this section of river. There are tons of farms, mostly wild stretches and some pretty wild set ups along the banks; one of two stilted riverside structures is on this section and this one is a cabin complete with a wood stove. Pretty sweet!

There are three portages on this stretch, two are 100 meter walk arounds and the third under the train trestle off Walnut Street is just a carry over. No big deal. 

Wanna take a trip on this section? Let me know. Let’s go out!

Pinetown Covered Bridge

Ceratomia catalpae Can Eat

Broken record time…

I swear to you that there is something new every time I hit the water. 

Yesterday, it was a tree that was absolutely (well, almost absolutely) stripped of all of its leaves. A tree without any leaves isn’t exactly rare as there are plenty of standing dead trees without leaves along the Conestoga River, but this one had green branch-tips. I think it was the color in the branches that helped make this specimen stand out and I stopped for a while to figure out what was happening. 

On a high branch there were still some leaves and I could see what appeared to be black worm-like objects. Caterpillars!

There was another leaf within reach on a lower branch and sure enough, there was a caterpillar present.

Turns out what I was looking at was the larval stage of a catalpa sphynx (Ceratomia catalpae) and as the name suggests it was on a catalpa tree, in this case a southern catalpa (Catalpa bignonioides). 

Known for stripping catalpa trees bare, not only are these caterpillars valued by anglers as bait, but they are super cool looking. Unfortunately, this visual appeal does not translate to the adult stage as catalpa sphynx moths are smaller than what one would expect and are a drab brown. 

According to Stephen Peele of the Florida Mycology Research Center, catalpa trees might be completely defoliated a couple of times during a season, but still survive and come back healthy. Crazy! “I have tried to understand the possible symbiotic relationship between the worm and the tree. There surely must be one,” writes Peele. (wikipedia)

Ahhh... science.

Catalpa sphynx moth larvae

Southern catalpa tree - no leaves

The River is Messy

The river is awesome. The river is beautiful. The river is messy. 

It smells sometimes; sort of a chemical smell which for the most part I don’t really notice. Not that it is there all of the time, but… The smell can be accompanied by bubbling where the water moves quickly over an elevation loss, and there is one of these up from the house and one a quarter of a mile downstream. Not sure what causes this - most likely something unnatural in the water. Google says it can be the sign of a naturally-occurring organic matter decaying. That or the presence of something synthetic. 

But the smell and bubbles are not exactly what I am thinking about when I say that the river is messy. It’s messy in a falling apart and decaying sense. There are fallen trees leaning into the water. There are scraggle branches here and there. There’s mud. And moss-scum floating along - especially in summer. There are dead things. Dead fish. Dead deer. Dead leaves. Once a dead pig. But mostly dead leaves and bits of trees. To be honest, I’ve only seen a dead deer in the water once. And only one pig. No cows. 

There are scraggly branches precariously leaning against trees, some trees are bent over and twisted and in various states of decay; it’s raw. It’s real.

Some scraggle and a river cat.