June 15
Our 2026 River trip has started off with wonderful opportunities. Starting in Addison, New York, the river was flowing fast with a number of fun rifle areas that challenged our ability to get around small rocks and not capsize. Karen continues to be great at navigating around those kinds of obstacles. Because the river was flowing so fast, we moved along much faster than expected and so we took a rather leisurely amble in Corning and explored the Market Street shops and, of course, found our way to a bakery and coffee shop. We don’t usually succumb to such treats that early in our adventures. We also happened upon Karen‘s friend Beth’s art studio. Beth was our transportation to our put in ramp this morning so it was fun to see her again. It may have been about a mile walk into town, which was nice as our legs seldom get exercise on these trips. And while it’s been a chilly day, the sun pops out every now and then to give us a little cheer.
Addison New York is on the Canisteo river, which eventually joins the Tioga and the Cohocton Rivers to make the Chemung River. Beautiful rivers with interesting wildlife in and around them. We saw adult eagles, juvenile eagles, Cormorants, heron, osprey, a deer, geese and goslings, all a part as a natural beauty of the Southern Tier of New York State.
The water levels are pretty good most of the way though we did get hung up once on gravel and Karen had to push us out. Because we are moving so fast, we think about 4 miles an hour, we will be in Elmira midday tomorrow. Will be met by our new friends at the Friends Of The Chemung River Watershed in Elmira and they may paddle with us for a while. They have been very kind to provide us guidance and we learned today that they had weed whacked around the portage area so we can get through and around the small damn in Elmira pretty easily.
Karen and I discussed today that we both have a little anxiety before each trip that we will be unable to find a suitable place to set up our tents for the night. Generally, we have found that to be unfounded anxiety and have almost always found a perfect place. Except for the sounds of interstate 86 nearby we have a nearly perfect campsite that is secluded and beautiful along a stream flowing into the Chemung River.
We have enjoyed dehydrated dinners, a small campfire, and will now fall asleep, hopefully, to the sounds of the babbling brook.
June 16
Last night I slept very poorly and finally fell asleep perhaps around 5 o’clock in the morning. It was in the. mid 40s and my sleeping bag is not good enough for that temperature so I was cold all night. At around four I was desperate and took out my charcoal activated hand warmers, and warmed up my legs as much as I could. I slept for a couple of hours before Karen woke me up as we had a timeline for today. We needed to be in Elmira by around noon in order to meet our new friends at the Friends Of The Chemung River Watershed. We arrived almost exactly at noon and greeted by reporters from both of the TV stations in Elmira. They wanted to interview us and we wanted to promote the Chemung River as a beautiful recreational area.
It is exactly that. Karen and I paddled this morning from where we had camped on a little side creek, and we made our way through riffles and stillwater with no wind and a warm sun to make up for the cold night.
As we told the reporters, we really encourage people to get out on all the rivers, especially this river. It is a great river for beginners as it has a little excitement as the elevation drops, but it doesn’t pose any real danger if you’re careful.
It was a sentimental trip for me today as we paddled through Elmira and I saw all the familiar sites from my childhood. I subjected Karen to stories that she pretended to be interested in. The Hills around Elmira are particularly special. It’s hard to describe them, but they rise up from the Chemung Valley in a very majestic way.
In Elmira, we had one portage to make around the dam that is right downtown. The dam creates a small pool that feeds water into the water supply of Elmira through the water board.
The portage included a few cement steps ann several hundred feet so we used the wheels that we carry with us when we expect to need them.
It’s hard for us to know exactly how many miles we’ve traveled on this river. We have a river guide, but we’re never quite sure what the landmarks are to indicate where we are on the map. But we do know that we are paddling much faster than we expected thanks to a good current. Tonight we are camped along the river near Wellsburg. Tomorrow we plan to arrive in the Susquehanna River, earlier than we originally expected, where my school-age friend Kim Clark will pick us up and take us back to Corning.
In addition to the small riffles to entertain us, we’ve had opportunities to go around small islands to see more eagles and osprey and cormorants and geese and ducks, turtles, and some deer. We even saw some large fish in the water along with tiny fish and cray fish.
It continues to be amazing to paddle the rivers of these lands, and we are grateful to all we meet to all we learn and to our abiding friendship.
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