3.10.09 Susky Plan "B"

[fishin_musician]

After spending the afternoon Sunday bemoaning the low water levels in the Susquehanna River I was happy to see the river steadly rising all day on Monday. Unfortunately for me the water  didn't stop rising until it had made fishing virtually impossible. To add insult to injury the one place that I could have gotten to the waters edge and fished safely had been sealed off by the RR police. This particular location was one that I have fished for over 20 years and has been a local destination for generations. Now the entrance had concrete highway barriers in place with only enough room for the train to pass through.
I have spent years learning how to get to places that most shore anglers never even see. I had an idea in the back of my head for a few days and this quickly became my new focus for the day. There is a section of the river that I'm working on finding access to. I'm not giving it up until I have made my own thorough personal assessment of it. The first inspection went very well and I never even got to the river's edge.
I took my camera and walked into the woods leaving my van parked along the edge of the dirt road. I had observed some unique features traveling this way in the past and now upon closer inspection I could see my initial impressions had been correct. I headed for an old RR grade, the tracks and ties having been long ago removed, this path provided a convenient and easy route to follow.

At one time the Pennsylvania Canal (North Branch Division) ran the length of the North Branch Susquehanna. It was mostly filled to make a bed for the railroad tracks that replaced it. In this section however there are some sections that are still recognizable. On this day I was treated to a sample of what it might have looked at one time when water still filled its banks.

I walked the old RR bed occasionally making a detour to view the canal and check for a spot to ford it and make my way to the river's edge. The woods were full of birds and I was able to see and hear many: a pair of bluebirds, a hairy woodpecker, nuthatches and a flicker all shared the woods with me as I walked along. I was listening to honking Canadian Geese when a turkey ran up and over the RR grade. I brought my camera up and squeezed of a few desperate shots as one after another of the quick running birds dashed away into thicker cover. I set a course to cut them off and was able to get a decent pic as they flushed and flew over the canal bed.

Other wildlife spotted on my walk included a pair of whitetail deer, too swift for my lens, a few gray squirrels, and evidence of coyotes, beaver and piliated woodpeckers.

All in all not a bad way to spend the morning. I can't wait to see what I find when I can actually get to the river. I got back on the road to home making mental plans for my next visit to this new ground, but the adventure was not over yet! As I was driving down the highway I looked down and saw a tiny movement on my left leg, it was a tick I quickly flicked it off. Then I spotted another and another. I was crawling with the bloodsuckers, big ones and tiny ones. I gritted my teeth for a mile, pulled over in a restaurant parking lot, jumped out and started picking them off. I found a dozen on my legs then at least that many more on my jacket. Somehow I seem to have avoided getting bitten by any of them. I have been bitten many times in the past and never contracted Lyme Disease. In spite of the insect brigade I can't wait to get back to this place.