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When I thought about how much I love bodies of water, all I could think of afterwards is how I am a body of water; and how if all bodies of water are beautiful and worth admiration and care, then I am too, as are you. You’re as unique as a rain drop and as beautiful as an ocean; as am I.
The Special Park Adventure was a kayak tour through the historic tunnel, at the park where Sophie and I take our walks. The only time boats are allowed in the canal and through the tunnel (apart from the Historical Society's boat) is on these tours, and they only do a few of them a year.
We start out on the North side of the tunnel, which is the smaller of the park's two sections. (Our regular walking route is on the other side.) Here are all the kayaks getting ready to go!
This one was my trusty steed for the evening:
Here's the kayak transport and some of the participants and staff:
Now we're on the water, waiting for some of the other people to get in:
Here we're heading towards the tunnel!
I took a bunch of pictures at this stage because I was hanging back while everyone organized themselves into single-file for the tunnel. This one came out pretty good:
I didn't take many in the actual tunnel, because Job One while you're in there is not running into the person in front:
The tunnel connects the two sections of the park, but most of the land on top of it is privately owned, so normally if you want to go to one section from the other, you have to leave the park and drive around to the other bit. Each side has a viewing area where you can look into the tunnel, but the only way to actually go inside is either this tour or the historical society's boat.
Here we are exiting the tunnel. I like how the little ferns grow out of the wall near the entrance:
We emerge into the south side, and wave at some people on the walking path:
Now we paddle up the longer piece of the canal. Sophie and I usually walk on the old towpath on either side of the canal here. (You can cross the canal by going up a hill and over the tunnel.)
I didn't take a lot of pictures on this side, but it was neat seeing it from a new angle, since I'm there all the time. We went the whole way up to the end of the restored canal section, where the historical society's boat lives:
Then we headed back down toward the tunnel, where we had more interpretation from our historical society guide:
There's a wide section here, because when the canal was in use, the boats would sometimes have to wait their turn to go through the tunnel, and this is where they'd do that. The canal originally connected the Susquehanna and Schuylkill rivers, which allowed boat traffic between Philadelphia and Harrisburg (and the various places around Harrisburg, where the farms and mines and so forth were located). It was about 90 miles when it was actually in use, but now there's just a short restored section around the tunnel.
And now we go back through the tunnel and out where we started:
It was a fun little trip! I still want to do one more Kayak Adventure before the season is over--maybe two; the kayak people couldn't tell me for sure how many more weekends they'll be running creek trips. At least next weekend, but after that it depends on how the weather shapes up.