We met in Sunbury, Pennsylvania at around 2 o’clock this afternoon, Karen having traveled from Jamestown and Maggie from Vermont. We were fortunate to be able to leave a car in a state park in Sunbury where we hope to end on Thursday or Friday. And then we drove up to Towanda where we ended last year. The local mechanic let us leave another car there and by 5 o’clock we were out on the river. We intended to paddle for about 5 miles to a rustic campsite that was on our map but we couldn’t find the campsite and kept on paddling. 10 miles in we found this amazing place called French Azilum. We have Marie-Antoinette to thank for this place as it was developed in hopes that she would escape the French revolution and her life would be saved here in Pennsylvania. We all know how that ended. But we’re grateful to have an asylum of our own here on the banks of the Susquehanna River.
This is a well-marked ramp and a welcoming campsite. Information about the Azilum (asylum in English) is on a board at the top of the ramp and a box to make a donation for the campsite is also there. As we walked up the ramp we were pleased to discover this huge, flat hay field and a mown trail to the house (which was not open when we were there) and a mown area for setting up several tents. Included in the surprise gift was a picnic table and a fire pick and even a stack of old fence posts and other wood we could use for a fire.
It was perhaps the most perfect and easy of all the campsites we had set up. And we were pleased to be further on our journey than we had expected to get in those first evening hours.
Paddle With Us 