DAY 8

"My army ranger friend Dave showed up Thursday night and camped with me on the bank of Pequea Creek about 1.2mile off the Susquehanna.   I believe Dave was researching river survival techniques for the army special forces and is planning a white paper on urban ninja survival based on what he saw on our campout together! ha.  Very off the grid hush hush stuff for sure.

Dave and I paddled down the Pequea first thing which opened into the Susquehanna river at sunup.  The main river was flat as glass (see Daves Pic cruising along in his orange kayak) and we enjoyed a smooth paddle.   My first really sunny day with no winds and my ranger friend is looking at me like “what’s all the whining about rain about their chief?”

On our paddle we noted a huge rock formation on the opposite side of the river (1/2 mile away) that had a hole in the middle and decided to paddle over and get pictures under the arch.  After a long paddle across the river to the “hole in the boulder” we discovered it to be an optical illusion and only a shadow.  It was an amazing illusion for sure. (see pic)

We paddled about seven mile down to the Holtwood Dam and met the plant manager (Doug) and got a nice tour and ride around the power plant to a put in below the dam.  At the ramp we ran into two nice guys who claimed to have gone the whole 440 miles of the Susky River.  Turns out I knew of them from their blog when researching the trip and had used much of their knowledge in setting up my paddle.  They are both named Jay so are referred to Jay one and Jay two in the inner circle of kayak sojourns.  It was an honor to meet them and also a great omen.  They laughed out loud at my floating garage sale for a camper/kayak.

Dave and I moved on down the river another 15 miles past the Peach Bottom Atomic power plant on the right (they were landing 30” striped bass in the hot water outflow as we passed) and onto the Conowingo Dam.  The Conowingo was the largest Dam I was to portage and again the plant manager came to the rescue and were at the ramp with a truck to move Dave and I below the Dam.  We padded into the outflow of the Dam as the sirens from the Dam releasing water was sounding.  We shot down river in the tailrace at 8.5mph and were cautious to stay upright.  Out day ended about 4 miles down at Port Deposit’s Susky Grill where we pulled out to camp at Elk Neck State park on Saturday.  We had paddled 24 miles with an average speed of 4.2mph per Dave’s stats.- Dan"