Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Weeping Sacandaga...




Drove up to Lake Luzerne NY in southern Adirondacks this past Monday with American Canoe Association Executive Director Pam Dillon to look at one of the eight potential relocation sites for ACA headquarters.

The Adirondack Region is spectacularly beautiful. The Town of Lake Luzerne is like a fine New England village, surrounded by lakes and the Hudson River and Sacandaga River. This trip was a nice opportunity to chat with Pam and learn a great deal about the inner workings of ACA past and present.

Over the weekend the ACA Board of Direcors met at another possible relocation site -- Fredericksburg VA, along the banks of the Rappahannock River. They treated us like royalty as did the folks in Lake Luzerne.

In a few days I head to Canaan Valley West Virginia for the annual Parsons Family Reunion, one of my favorite beautiful and wild places.

After that it's back to my mundane existence as a vineyard man and rivergeek.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

More flexible flow...

Triple stone-arch bridge over the Musconetcong River. Optimal times for paddling this river are November through March.

The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) is preparing to hold another round of hearings on the Flexible Flow Mangement Plan. The hearings will be in August.

Meanwhile I still haven't found time to develop a concise response to "the reservoirs did it" crowd (unruly mob?). That will happen when it happens. But the delusional behavior of these folks is apparently boundless. It's the type of stupidity that is born of fear and ignorance and spawns things like racism, fundamentalist religion, and the Bush 2 administration -- world champions at promoting and relying upon fear and ignorance.

This river has recovered from the nasty sediment plume and the Delaware River and its tribs are slightly below the median daily flow, which is to say low flow. I am looking forward to one camping trip above the Water Gap and at least one paddle trip on the Upper Delaware between Barryville and Matamoras. I'll be posting the dates in case any of you blog lurkers want to come along.

Meanwhile I will be traveling with fellow American Canoe Association Directors to Lake Luzerne (Adirondack Mts.) this coming week to check out potential ACA headquarters and later that week to Fredericksburg VA for same, where the city and Mary Washington U. are hosting our Board of Directors meeting and pitching a few locations in and around Fredericksburg for the new digs. ACA must vacate its overpriced and unattractive offices located in heavily suburbanized Springfield VA, located near DC. An office along the Rappahannock River would be nice. At the end of the month I'll be traveling to Canaan Valley WVA for the annual Parsons Family Reunion.

Keep cool!