I’ve been a little busy with some work-related stuff, but I finally got time to post pictures from my river trip.

We camped out at Black Moshannon State Park Friday night, so we’d all be packed up and ready to go first thing Saturday morning.

The weatherman was predicting rain for the whole weekend. Fortunately, he is totally incompetent.

This stretch of the river has no towns or development of any kind. There aren’t even any roads along it, only an old (abandoned?) railroad track. So, even though our choice of legal campsites was quite limited, the selection of good campsites was practically infinite.

Once we made camp, a series of thunderstorms forced me to cook dinner under my tarp, but the storms moved through quickly.

After the storms had passed, we hung out around the campfire.

While I abstained from intoxicating liquors, some of the crew imbibed deeply.

Sunday morning, those of us without hangovers went down to the riverbank, made coffee, and took panoramic photographs of the foggy river.

_{The view from our campsite — Click for big}

After the fog burned off, we had another nice, sunny day on the water

I made a google map of the trip, in case anyone wants to try to reproduce our results.

View Larger Map

Me and my kayak are heading out into the wilds for a few days to explore the waters of north central Pennsylvania, to slay sea monsters, and to win the affections of big-tittie mermaids.

I’ll be back next week sometime.

My co-conspirators and I skipped work on Monday to kayak the Pine Creek gorge.

It was perhaps a bit early in the season. There was still snow on the ground in a few places, and the water was damn cold.

About 15 minutes into the trip, we saw the first Bald Eagle of the day.

Recent rain and snowmelt made some nice waterfalls along the way.

The scenery in the canyon is always awesome.

It was a very nice trip. We covered about 22 miles of the creek with only minor incidents of unintentional swimming.

There are more pictures in the Gallery, but pictures don’t do the place proper justice.

If you’ve never been to Pine Creek, you really should go. If you don’t have a boat or a wetsuit or whatever, the people at Pine Creek Outfitters can hook you up. They are nice people, and they have a very friendly dog.

There’s a guy running for State Senate who is making the rivers one of his big issues.

“From coal mine pollution, to out-of-date dams, there are all kinds of past damages that have been done to our waterways that we have the means to correct now,” Mr. Casimir said. “Anything I can do toward building fish ladders, toward cleaning up waterways, (and) just to making people aware of their connections via our waterways.”

I like it. I’m tired of hearing about gay marriage, abortion, and Mexicans all the time from politicians. I’m not gay, pregnant, or Mexican, so I just don’t give a damn. I do like to go kayaking in the river. Sometimes I fall out of my boat, and I would like that water to be clean.

In the spring and summer, Mr. Casimir intends to tour the watersheds of the district by canoe with his wife and three children to emphasize the natural connections that bind people together.

Kick ass! Campaigning by canoe!

I’m an independent, so I’m not allowed to vote in the Primaries in Pennsylvania. I don’t even live this this guy’s district, but I think he kicks ass anyways.