Up and down the Susquehanna River; a journey to remember

I did it, and it did me! I am now an informal member of the Great Susquehanna River 444 Club! I spent 15 days (in a kayak), 14 nights (in a tent), and traveled 324 miles down the Susquehanna from Owego to Havre De Grace in beautiful sunny weather and with good water levels.

Along the way, I observed 27 Great White Egrets, 243 Blue Heron, 129 Bald Eagles, hundreds of geese and ducks, 97 Cormorants, 72 turtles, one black bear, one Red Fox, and one toad and an orange tabby cat. 

On Saturday, Sept. 23 at 11:15 a.m., I paddled into the Susquehanna River State Park in Havre de Grace Maryland, completing the second leg on the Paddling to Remember journey promoting the awareness of Alzheimer’s disease. 

Putting in at Owego on Sept. 9, it felt satisfying to connect last October’s hard nine day 120 mile paddle from Cooperstown to Owego at record low water, and to celebrate the marvelous entirety of America’s longest eastern river and fourth longest, overall. 

To fully appreciate the Susquehanna it helps to paddle along its miles of changing shorelines, geologic formations, Native American cultural sites, pioneer villages and early American logging, railroad, coal, steamship, and revolutionary settlement areas. It is indeed a paddle through time. 

I passed where Owego’s William camp died when the boiler on the steamboat ‘Susquehanna’ blew up ascending Berwick Falls in May 1826; where Abigail Whittlesey, later to become William Camp’s wife, barely survived the Wyoming massacre in 1778 when as a one year old she was put on a raft by her father who died at the massacre to float down river to safety. 

I also passed through the river stretch that my great great uncle William Hibbard on my dad’s side, and in service to the American Revolution, paddled by canoe up from the Wyoming Settlement to Tioga Point in the summer of 1777 looking for the British Tories and their Indian allies. 

In his own words, “My orders were from Colonel Dennison to see if the Tories had removed and gone off, as they had been previously warned to Depart the Country or they would be forcibly removed – also to what discoveries we co’d up and upon the River, to discover if we co’d, if the Indians were in the vicinity of the River, and generally to obtain all the information relative to the enemy that we co’d.” 

The recount continued, “I started in 1777 in Company with two other men, in a canoe, as were directed, to proceed with great caution, and with as much secrecy as possible. We paddled the canoe up the river in the night: in the daytime we concealed the canoe, and made excursions on land, on the banks of the river and its neighborhood. In this way we proceeded up the river as far as Tioga Point, at that time a wilderness, as was most of the

Country above the Wyoming Settlement. In our course up the river we discovered the Tories were mostly gone off: their log cabins were uninhabited. We discovered that they had gone to the six Nations and to the notorious John Butler, Indian Agent under the English.”

The account further continued, “The length of time I was engaged as a Spy I cannot now precisely recollect, it was at least two months or more. We traversed the river more than one hundred miles in the manner I have stated. We returned back in the course of the summer and made report to Colonel Denison on April 2, who was well satisfied with our doings.” 

He also survived the massacre, but two of his Hibbard relatives were among the 300 Patriots, men, women and children killed. 

In completing the entire length of the Susquehanna, I followed my favorite cousin, Armond Bassett’s lead, when he paddled all 444 miles in 13 days in a solo racing canoe in May of 1991.  

“Army” sadly died of early onset Alzheimer’s at age 62 and it was in his honor and memory, along with my friend’s wife Marilyn Beidleman, also an Alzheimer’s victim in her early 60s, that I undertook the challenge to paddle this beautiful river remembering them, their lives, contributions and health challenges, and the early and significant history of one of America’s great rivers in our backyard. 

I want to thank all the Owego supporters, my team of family and friends, for encouraging me in this undertaking and I challenge everyone to take good care of their health while caring for the health of all our rivers, including the great Susquehanna River and its national and wildlife resources as we are inner-connected to nature past, present and future.  

Special Thanks to my good friend Pete Gianforte for driving down to Havre de Grace from his home in Cazenovia, N.Y. to pick me up and bring me back to Owego. What would we ever do without our best friends?