First Winter Paddle

I’ve got a couple of other posts in the works, but I just wanted to write in celebration of this season’s first winter paddle. It’s probably not even winter but tonight had that bite in it that I associate in a turn in the weather. It was cold-ish, windy, overcast and rainy. Had some of those over the past few months, but, well, not the cold part. 

This is probably the first of a few firsts for the winter. First snow paddle. First cut against the waves paddle. First driving rain paddle. First ice paddle. Well, I told myself the next time I hit ice that I will turn around. Had one ice adventure and I’m not sure I need to do that again. Not that I was about to die or anything, but a swim would have at least meant a cold walk home. Probably could have smashed ice to the bank, but do I want to tempt fate with a second go? Not really.

That day I hit the ice down past Rocky Springs and while it was really thin at first, it thickened and by the end I was spiking my paddle in the ice and pulling myself forward over the sheet so the kayak could break the ice with its weight. Some of you understood that. Ha.

Anyway - to cut to the chase. No ice.

Winter's Here

The Route

The route… 

Imagine a “U.” We live at the upper right of the “U-bend” that the river makes. The take out is at the end of the upper left part. By river, it is around 1.4 miles to the take-out from our house. 

Depending on conditions, what boat you have and how you decide to paddle, it can take from 13 minutes to three hours. The 13 minutes came when the river was around 9 feet (3.2 is normal). I also took the fastest boat and paddled the whole way. The slowest was a tube float in the middle of the summer when the water was super low. That trip took so much more time than what is normal, we began to think that they missed the take out. These days, with the water around 2.9, a slow paddle/hang is taking an hour or so. Again, faster if I paddle. Because the rocks at the end of the route are exposed, I’m limited to the stubby, slow boats since the fast ones are really long and harder to weave in the rocky part. 

Anyway…Because of the bend, it only takes about 10 minutes to walk from the take-out to the house. Grab the truck. Pick up the boat and you’re done. 

The convenience of getting the boat back is a huge factor in my ability to go out as much as I do. I go out a lot and if it were a pain in the neck to make it happen, I just wouldn’t be out there as much. Even having to shuttle or deal with two cars would be enough to put a damper on everything. In the years that I lived close, but not on, the river, I only went out a few times. 

I will say that paddling our stretch has inspired me to check out other places around here. I’ve done parts of Mill Creek, Pequea Creek and the Little Conestoga. Oh, and the Susquehanna and Speedwell Forge. So much more to check out. 

This stretch pretty much does it though. It’s the bomb.

Little Conestoga Creek

The Township & River

So the Township…

I guess Lancaster Township has at the very least some say in what happens along the river. They also own a lot of land along the Conestoga’s banks as it goes through the city and as far as I can tell the people in charge there are committed to doing right by the river and figuring out ways they can improve access. Has to be about the river. 

After meeting with the Township Manager yesterday with our class, my impression is that Bill wants to make the world’s best township ordinance. I imagine that he doesn’t have it as a priority (time spent rewriting the thing) since he, no doubt, has other things to deal with like potholes and managing employees and liasoning with the Board of Supervisors and a whole mess of things the normal person doesn’t even know, but is he a policy/ordinance nerd? I think so. 

He wants, even encourages, residents to rewrite the ordinance in order to loosen or tighten the thing so it works for the folks who live in the Township. He seems to have an awesome philosophy about municipal governance that, if summarized, would be like this: let common sense dictate the codes by which individuals, residences and businesses can come together to shape a community. In that, people can have the freedom to do what they want with the understanding that they live around others. 

This approach seems like a good one to approach the management of the river and the spaces along it that are controlled by the Township. I’m not saying that there is anything pending that needs to be dealt with, but if something arose, I’m confident that as far as the Township is concerned, it has the people and systems in place to do good. 

On the way home