The "A Trip Down The Susquehanna River" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Just finished reading an article in my local newspaper's "Living Section" that was written by a fellow named Dennis McMahon.  Story was about growing up along the Susquehanna River.  The Susquehanna River begins in Cooperstown, New York at the southern end of the Otsego River, just a hop, skip and jump from the Baseball Hall of Fame.  The river runs for 444 miles from Cooperstown to the Chesapeake Bay at Havre de Grace, Maryland.  And, the Chesapeake opens into the Atlantic Ocean.  Well, the writer of the article that I was reading said that his boyhood dream was to build a raft, and like Huck Finn, take it down the Susquehanna all the way to the Chesapeake Bay!  The writer said that the name of the article was "Down the Susquehanna by Canoe."  Well, the writer said he had a better idea which was to build himself a log raft.   Never did happen and along came high school, college, marriage, and his dream began to fade.  After college he and his wife moved to Puerto Rico where they lived for over four years before returning home.  They then had a child and before long he and his wife were both 30 years old.  Well, if he didn't face the dream by now, it would never happen.  So, that January he made his decision to take a canoe down the river rather than building a raft.  He rounded up six of his friends and they began to live out his childhood dream.  None of the crew had a canoe.  They would have to rent or buy camping gear, rain gear, life jackets, cooking equipment, floatable containers for food and menus for about 180 meals.  Boy...I wish I would have had the chance to have been a part of the crew for that excursion.  Well, they got geological survey maps and river information from county planning departments, since they needed to know where all the dams, pipes and sunken structures might be along the way.  By now it was 1975 and Dennis was 38 years old and they decided they wanted to draw attention to the 1973 Clean Water Act, which was enabling the increasing recreational use of rivers like the Susquehanna.  They petitioned the Governor of New York for a letter they could carry to the governors of Pennsylvnia and Maryland who sat along the Susquehanna River.  Then, on the afternoon of June 20, 1975, the six friends set off in three canoes on a 350-mile adventure on the mighty Susquehanna River.  I can't imagine how exciting that must have been.  They stopped at City Island in Harrisburg and presented their letter to the Secetary for Environmental Resources.  A short time later they stopped at Havre Grace, Maryland for the presentation of another letter to the Secretary for Environmental Resources at City Park.  Their trip was a grand adventure and as the author of the story said, "It was a wonderful trip!"  The story ended with a note stating that the author of the article lived in Manheim Township which is where I lived until moving to Woodcrest Villa about a year ago. I did a bit of figuring and realized that the fellow who had written the article for the Lancaster Newspaper is now about the same age as myself.  Oh, how I would have loved to have had the chance to travel with Dennis and his friends down the Mighty Susquehanna!  Just reading his story made me feel as if I had been with him.  I'm a bit too old to try something like that now, but the story made me feel like I was part of the crew on those canoes.  Thank you so much for your story in the Lancaster Newspaper.  I loved it.  It was onother extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.