By Sharon Osborn
On 8 October 2022, four of us – Allison Holliday, Karen Egbert, Jon Hitchings, and Sharon Osborn – paddled the Upper Lehigh. It was running at around 2560 cfs that morning, down from 4000 cfs the day prior. Thanks to Allison, we linked up with some of the river guides who were paddling that day and put in at an alternate put in that was above the regular commercial put in, which is still closed. We received mixed estimates of how much further up the alternate put in was, some estimating two miles and others estimating closer to four miles. We met up at 10:00am at the Rockport River Access, linked up with the guides at 10:30am and arranged the shuttle. We arrived at the put in around 12:00pm after shuttle and cross-loading of boats, but due to a mishap with a forgotten spray skirt and a trip back to the take out, we didn’t put on the river until probably close to 1:00pm. One of the guides, John, was nice enough to assist in the spray skirt retrieval and also joined us down the river. We took off the river at approximately 5:00pm. We had a lovely day, though it was a bit cool – highs in the mid-50s. We had no swims and enjoyed the big wave trains! Allison, Karen, and Jon paddled the same section of river on Sunday.