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Lehigh River Sojourn Journal Day 1—
Nick S.
June 22, 2002
The next day we woke up at about 5:45 and got dressed for the day. Breakfast
was at 6:15 and we had plenty of time to fish. We cleaned up the fishing
line we found left in the woods. We put the fishing gear away and got prepared
for breakfast. We ate scrambled eggs, ham, and blueberry cake. When breakfast
was over we did some more fishing.
 At
about 7:20 Greg, Mr.Mauser, and I boarded the bus. On the bus we met Dave
Simon. He talked to us about his trips to the different Sojourns. We were
taken to the house of Commander John Butler. We were gathered to the back
of the house and Tom Kerr talked to us about the Wildlands Conservancy.
When he was done talking John Butler talked to us about the history of Stoddartsville
Mill. He had old artifacts that he found in the area. A carving of a bear
in a tree stump caught my eye. It was a beautiful carving that was carved
on the spot.
At about 10:12 we started canoeing. Allan Quant taught us how to go canoe
forward, backward, onside, and offside. When we got into the canoe I was
up front and Mr.Mauser was in the back. We waited for everyone to go in
front of us until we left from Stoddartsville. I was excited to start
and I trusted Mr. Mauser in the back. Greg was in the middle writing notes
and looking at the scenery. We hit quite a few rocks but it was still
fun. We canoed until about 11:20.
At 11:20 we ate ham and roast beef sandwiches, brownies, apples, and apple
juice for lunch. After we ate there was a program from Greg Wacik about
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He explained what the corps actually
does. I learned there are a lot of groups of people coming to help protect
our rivers.
Around 12:35 we were back out into the river. I was now in the river and
Greg was paddling up front. On the left you could see 40foot stone cliffs
topped with Hemlocks, our state tree. When we first left from camp there
were a few rocks we had to make our way around before getting to calmer
water. Greg had to start paddling harder because the wind was going against
us and the water was so calm. When Greg was tired we switched in the middle
of the lake. You could see the water was deeper because there was a line
of dead trees and bushes.
 After
a while of canoeing in the still water everyone was tired. A tired kayaker
was using a motor that he had on the back of his kayak to pull himself and
two other kayaks. We took breaks at two different turns before I had to
switch with Greg again because I was tired. Mr. Mauser was exhausted and
so were the rest of the canoers and kayakers. We finally made it to the
dam at about 3:55. The staff was waiting for us to rack up all the canoes.
After we got out of the canoes there was another one mile walk to the busses.
On the way home Greg and I were very tired. I think Greg was the most tired
because he was falling asleep on the bus. I had to shake him every now and
then to wake him up. When we got back we were ready for dinner. It was ziti
with meatballs, Italian bread, tossed salad, marble sheet cake, watermelon,
and punch.
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