Connoquenessing Creek in Pennsylvania

Trip Overview

We put in at the rail road trestle at Cottage lane (lat=40.7989491047, lon=-80.0256114403). Not a bad put in. It was slightly difficult to enter the water under the trestle. The bank is a little slick and steep, no real issue, far better than some we have traversed.

NOTE: Do not block Cottage lane; pull just up the hill 20 or 30' and pull off the side of the road. Don't park near the RR tracks either; they are still very much in use.

We paddled through an array of water from deep to shallow, slow to fast, etc. Watch out for the stone dams, every set of camps seems to have dammed up the creek to swim in or to hold fish. We went over most of them without an issue. I put an ugly crack in my hull as I ran up on a hidden cement block just below the surface. There are a lot of tires in the water. Other than that it was nice trip, far better than being at work.

According to "Canoeable Streams in Western Pennsylvania" www.learningdesign.com/cgi-local/rivergage the water was .3 above canoeable levels. I would not have wanted it much lower.

It was a 13.5 mile trip and took us 5 hours with a few stretch brakes and a lunch stop. This falls in line with out 3 mph overall average we expect. The take out was easy, a short hull to the truck, 50 feet or so. We took out just south of Zelienople (lat=40.7927843052, lon=-80.1798826853).

In short it was a nice day; they seem to be cleaning the stream up a bit from what we have read. We want to go from our pull out to the Ohio River; we will let you know how it goes.

Accommodations:

none

Fees:

None. We did not use any state launches, so no need for a PA launch permit. Not that we don't have them any ways...

Directions:

Put In at:

lat=40.7989491047, lon=-80.0256114403

Take Out at:
lat=40.7927843052, lon=-80.1798826853

Resources:

Google Earth