Yesterday I described my solo canoe run on the "Conodoguinet" creek. Here's how it ended...
As hard as I tried, I couldn't get the canoe out of the current, and in what seemed like seconds I was at the dam. Normally there was a steep drop from above to below the dam, but the water was so high the dam was completely covered. The only choice I had was to straighten the canoe and try to ride it over the churning water. Not a good plan.
To this day I can vividly recall the canoe going straight up in the air after dumping me into the water below the dam. I recall hitting the creek bottom and cutting my face and hands on the sharp rocks. I quickly surfaced, only to be hit by the canoe when it decided to come back down and land on the water. I began to wonder if this might be it, but quickly realized I would be in big trouble if I lost our new family canoe. So I worked my way to the surface again.
The canoe wasn't in sight, so I let the current take me until I spotted it about a mile downstream. A good Samaritan stopped and had mercy on this soaked kid. He drove to a phone booth at Willow Mill Park and called my dad to come rescue me. The canoe was damaged, but my dad got a fiberglass kit and repaired it, so it could be passed down through the family to create more memories. Speaking of, I will share one more memory and I am done posting today.
After I was married with our own kids, we had the same canoe stored in a field behind our house. We decided to pass it along to my younger brother, so we loaded it on top of the car and headed to his house near Mechanicsburg, PA. Problem was, I had no idea there was a whole family of mice that had made a home in the canoe.
The last memory we have of the canoe was driving through Dover, PA, with baby mice falling onto our windshield. My wife was freaking out, so I turned on the wiper blades and the baby mice took off down Main Street in search of another canoe.
As hard as I tried, I couldn't get the canoe out of the current, and in what seemed like seconds I was at the dam. Normally there was a steep drop from above to below the dam, but the water was so high the dam was completely covered. The only choice I had was to straighten the canoe and try to ride it over the churning water. Not a good plan.
To this day I can vividly recall the canoe going straight up in the air after dumping me into the water below the dam. I recall hitting the creek bottom and cutting my face and hands on the sharp rocks. I quickly surfaced, only to be hit by the canoe when it decided to come back down and land on the water. I began to wonder if this might be it, but quickly realized I would be in big trouble if I lost our new family canoe. So I worked my way to the surface again.
The canoe wasn't in sight, so I let the current take me until I spotted it about a mile downstream. A good Samaritan stopped and had mercy on this soaked kid. He drove to a phone booth at Willow Mill Park and called my dad to come rescue me. The canoe was damaged, but my dad got a fiberglass kit and repaired it, so it could be passed down through the family to create more memories. Speaking of, I will share one more memory and I am done posting today.
After I was married with our own kids, we had the same canoe stored in a field behind our house. We decided to pass it along to my younger brother, so we loaded it on top of the car and headed to his house near Mechanicsburg, PA. Problem was, I had no idea there was a whole family of mice that had made a home in the canoe.
The last memory we have of the canoe was driving through Dover, PA, with baby mice falling onto our windshield. My wife was freaking out, so I turned on the wiper blades and the baby mice took off down Main Street in search of another canoe.
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