Autumn makes for great canoeing weather
By: Hank Reeves
I was just thinking with all this rain how good it would make the canoeing this fall. Autumn is the best time of the year to canoe. For those who would like to give it a try, there are canoe rentals in the area. Canoe trails along the Rancocas River have been improved with more accessible launch sites.
Probably the most popular run is found below Chatsworth going from Lake Oswego to Harrisonville Lake. It takes about four hours to make this run and if possible should be done through the week as weekends are overcrowded. Unfortunately, I have been told a great deal of litter has been left along this trail.
Hacks Canoe Retreat on Mill Street in Mount Holly was the Mecca for canoeing. I don’t know when it was established or when it met its demise or why, but for us back in the 40s and 50s it was the place to go. For $2 the first hour and $1 thereafter, you could rent a canvas-covered canoe, no doubt an Old Town. They were quiet on the water and warm to ride in compared to the aluminum ones of today.
Not far upstream the boys had a rope swing which they would pull back and hide whenever they heard a canoe coming. When the canoe was opposite of the boys, they would swing out and drop in the water beside the startled people in the canoe. People who knew this trick would paddle on the opposite side and deprive the boys of their fun.
A couple hours or more and a picnic lunch would put you below the dam in Smithville, then it was a leisurely drift back downstream to Hacks.
Night-time canoeing was very popular, taking a date for a ride in the pitch dark was always an experience. Once the lights of Hacks were lost to a bend in the creek, your eyes adjusted to the dark and the black cedar water. All of a sudden everything was quiet with just the sound of the paddle dipping in the water and the smooth gliding of the canoe over the water.
It was the third date I had this girl on, and her first time in a canoe. Things were going too good when she wanted to help paddle. I never got the chance to tell her you don’t stand up in a canoe to get to the front seat or paddle under it. Is there anything that turns over as fast as a canoe?
Lucky it was May and the water was warm, which I found myself in up to my neck.
It was good that we laughed after the screaming stopped or else she would have cried. That was 56 years ago and she still remembers her brand new, first time worn corduroy sport jacket, a pair of black and white saddle shoes and a watch that never ran again.
Hank Reeves is a retired district insurance agent and registered representative who grew up in Chesterfield and is a resident of Columbus.

