On The Trail
“Messing About
in Boats” –– Clarion River
Mole after a hard morning of spring chores strolls down to
the riverside and thinks this is as good as life gets. He then meets Water Rat, who astounded that
Mole has never been in a boat invites him aboard, and off they go on an
adventure down the river “messing about in boats.” This is the beginning of Kenneth Grahame’s
children’s classic The Wind in the
Willows.
Paddling the Clarion River 9 miles from Portland Mills to
Irwin is 9 miles of paddling with the Allegheny National Forest, river right,
and State Game Land 44, river left.
Public Lands in Pennsylvania!
Whether hiking or paddling, our common wealth of Public Lands
consistently provides the most rewarding opportunities for exploring and
enjoying our outdoor heritage.
The town of Ridgway was
my starting point. Once there I met
Sean Robinson, a New Yorker who fell in love with the Allegheny National Forest
on childhood visits. While searching for
locations from this past he discovered Ridgway, and now has a home there. He was my guide for the day.
Country Squirrel Outfitters www.countrysquirreloutfitters.com
, owned by friends of Sean’s, provided us with a canoe and a shuttle to the put
in at Portland Mills. Country Squirrel
has what you need –– advice, gear, boats,
shuttle, map –– to get you on the river.
The Clarion River cuts through the Allegheny Plateau. This section includes flood plains well above
the normal river level, although debris in branches overhead show how much
water can move down this river at flood stage.
4 - 5 feet is a comfortable level for paddlers (it was just under 3.7’
when we paddled it) - check the Ridgway USGS Gauge online, or contact the outfitters
to learn the flow level.
Large boulders along the river are nice lunch stops. Small beaches and campsites on the ANF bank
are additional potential stops. This is
a fairly isolated stretch of stream. The
highway that usually parallels so many miles of PA rivers, is missing along
this stretch - Public Lands! Camping is
allowed on the ANF side.
The ghost town of Arroyo at mile 79 (river right) along with
traces of cribs used to anchor log booms, a mill race, and a dam are echoes of
the past. Polluted water was a legacy of
industry - coal, timber, tanning, paper - that is part of the exploitation of
PA’s forests and waters. The Clarion,
once known as the most polluted stream in PA, has improved. Cooperative efforts that include sportsmen,
industry, and government have cleaned up the river, and now trout and bass are
living in its water.
The most visible impact of the past is that only a few white
pine tower above the river banks. Here
the pre-industrial forest was solid with hemlock and white pine. That forest is gone. A forest consisting of mostly hardwoods has
returned, and today we find it a to be beautiful forest, particularly where Public Lands, like State
Game Land 44 and the ANF, have protected the land long enough for the forest
and its wildlife to return.
Perhaps the most impressive return has been that of our
national symbol, the bald eagle. Bald
eagles were nearly extirpated from PA by 1983.
With the necessary habitat, banning of some pesticides, and game
management bald eagles have returned in impressive numbers, from 3 nesting
pairs in 1983 to 197 pairs in 2010.
Sean hoped we would see bald eagles and we were not
disappointed. A mature eagle took off
from a riverside tree top, and spiraled high above the downstream ridge. Its high pitched cry was soon answered by a
second eagle. That eagle landed in a
tree and Sean pointed out that there did not seem to be any white on it. Once it took off we could see it was an
immature eagle.
Geese and goslings swam along the bank. They likely have not yet grown their flight
feathers. Kingfishers darted back and
forth across the river. Occasionally we
drifted and listened to a few songbirds.
We saw 2 deer, but none of the bear and otters others have
noted while paddling here. One decent
sized snake was sunning itself on a large boulder. Some small fish, possibly a trout, and a bass
that broke the surface of the water.
Sean, an avid fly fisherman, took note of the insects coming off the
water.
There were no other paddlers on the river. The few people we saw were along the bank and
had likely walked in along trails from the Public Access boat launch
sites. They were fishing, swimming in
the large pools, and enjoying the river.
At modest water flow levels this is a very forgiving stretch
of river. However the last two miles
include the X Y Z Rapids, three distinct short rapids that require avoiding
some rocks and ledges. They are short
and allow for reasonable recovery at the end of each one. Intermediate paddlers will likely enjoy the
challenge of these rapids. The rapids
are a legacy of the Clarion River navigation Company, which removed the
waterfall called Old Falls Rock in 1871.
Paddling and hiking on Pennsylvania’s Public Lands often
includes both the beauty of the natural world, as well as the legacy of past
industrial activity. Public Lands often
ended up public once industry had exploited the resources and moved on and the
despoiled land was purchased by our government, both State and Federal. Public Lands are lands that are in the public
trust and should be protected for not only us, but also for future
genereations.
Public Lands are among
our best opportunities to enjoy and explore the outdoors. This section of the Clarion River, protected
between the Allegheny National Forest and State Game Lands 44, is the perfect
place to enjoy a day on the river and like Water Rat you too may come to
believe that “there is nothing—absolutely
nothing—half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.”
