Canoeing on the Schuylkill River

Yes, that's a minivan with a canoe on top!  We decided to canoe from Pottstown to Philly...in broken up legs of course!  The girls toughed out a long 5 hour paddle from Towpath Park to Black Rock Park.  According to them, that was way too long!  A very easy leg, but lots of paddling as the river is severely slow.   Before you go you should check phillyrivercast.org.  They have a simple traffic light feature that lets you know the water quality levels.  Don't let rumors of the river being dirty scare you off.  It is a wonderful piece of nature right in our backyard!

We made a lot of stops along the way for the girls to explore (and pop a squat!).  They loved seeing tadpoles and numerous Great Blue Herons along the way.  The river was shallow enough, almost at every point I checked, to get out and walk in less than waist deep water.  

                                                  
                                                          

That's a grocery cart buried in the river bed!  We saw countless tires in the river along the way.  I would estimate 1 tire every 10 feet!  There was a lot of debris and I wished we had a way to collect some and drag it out while we were there. (speaking of cleaning up the river, check out greenvalleys.org if your are interested) Even with the litter everywhere we looked, this was a spectacular way to get away from the hustle and bustle of every day life.  We plan to do more legs this spring and summer until we make it all the way to the city.  If I were to do this leg again, (with the kids again), I would cut it in half.  I would still put in at Towpath Park, but would have finished in Royersford after the bridge at a little opening on 1st. Ave.