Tuesday morning dawned cool and calm, so we loaded our folding bikes into the dinghy and headed up the Susquehanna for some exploration. We passed under the four bridges north of Havre de Grace -- two railroad, two highway -- and pulled into the small marina park at the southern end of the town of Port Deposit, which is about the navigable limit of the Susquehanna due to upstream rocky shallows.
Port Deposit has seen better days, and they were probably sometime in the middle of the last century. Founded in 1729, this skinny town tucked between the river and a steep, terraced hillside served as terminus of a canal route between Pennsylvania and the Bay. Later, railroad tracks were laid through it, and from the remains of the old depot, it was obviously a stop of some importance. Once-proud granite buildings now stand decayed and neglected.
Past the end of town, the road went through thick forest. The remains of the old canal were visible here and there as an overgrown ditch, and we occasionally glimpsed the river. The Union Hotel caught our attention as we rode by; built of hemlock logs during the heyday of the canal (the late 18th century), it has been restored and now is a restaurant. The interior has been furnished to recall the building's past history, and the waitresses wear period clothing. The food was delicious (we ate lunch here) but definitely more 20th century than 18th.
We biked to the Conowingo Dam, which is releasing very little water right now because of the immense drought here in Maryland this year. The dam has a "fish elevator" which was added in an attempt to restore shad, which swim upstream to spawn, to their pre-dam historical range. There is an observation walkway quite high up on the downstream side of the dam, and fishing is allowed from this walkway. Usually there are pretty big fish just downstream of dams, and this one was no exception -- these fish were enormous! We watched as one man hooked a fish which had to be over three feet long, only to have it manage to slip away.
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Abandoned mill in Port Deposit Granite building, maybe a former train depot Valerie, our waitress at the Union Hotel |
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Looking downstream from Conowingo Dam Conowingo Dam The Lantern Queen, a Havre de Grace tour boat that goes up and down the Susquehanna |
A few days later we anchored for the morning in Rogue's Harbor,
just inside Turkey Point, and loaded the bikes into the dinghy again.
This time we biked to the Turkey Point lighthouse, which marks the
point where the Susquehanna, North East, and Elk Rivers come
together. It was a hilly and pleasant ride, and since the lighthouse
is on a dramatically steep cliff, it would have made for a great view
if it hadn't been so humid that the visibility was poor.
Supposedly there's a new Harrison Ford movie in which he drives a car off Turkey Point. We'll have to look for it, now that we've been there.
