Paddle Pilgrim: Erie Canal and Hudson River Pilgrimage

Why Paddle the Erie Canal/Hudson River?

Huck Finn and his friend Jim floating downstream on a raft inspired my Mississippi “adventure” in 2012. In this case it begins with a “girl, her name was Sal.” In my grade school classroom in Dobbs Ferry, NY, on the banks of the Hudson River, I met “Sal” in a song I couldn’t get out of my head;

“I know a gal, her name is Sal, 15 miles on the Erie Canal, she’s a good ol’ worker and a good ol’ pal, 15 miles on the Erie Canal. She’s towed some barges in her day, filled with lumber, coal and hay, and every inch of the way we go from Albany to Buffalo”.

60 years later, Sal, like Huck, has called me to another adventure;

“Low bridge everybody down, low bridge for we’re going through a town, and you always know your neighbor, you always know your pal, if you’ve ever navigated on the Erie Canal”.

Join me on this paddle pilgrimage which will begin around September 23. If you want to sing along, here’s a link to a favorite youtube version of the song covered by Bruce Springsteen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Koj5yGigFNU