2-22-16 Trip By: Steve

 

      It was a nice enough day Monday to get out for a paddle, none of the bait shops have regular hours yet so we wouldn't get any blood worms to perch fish, it didn't matter, it was a day to un-foul the lines, plug leaks, or oil zippers if needs be, really a day to run off, and get in the water.

      It was nice as nice can be, anchored, bottom fishing, and nothing doing, except for one strange interlude, through the island cut came a muscular woman in spandex and a tee shirt on a weird boat, a sleek racing canoe with an outrigger on the port side, digging water like hell up the bank toward the bend, shouted "HI!" then "Nice to have the wind behind you when the tide is against you!" or something like that, immediately she was gone.

      Anyone out paddling a Jersey river mid-February, is more than a bit unusual. I searched online for an image of a boat matching the one we'd seen so I could call it by it's right name in case I wanted to mention it in this post, (outrigger canoe). An image came up which matched the boat so closely, and the person sitting in it too, my gut said they were the same. After a little more research I became 100% certain that this mirage on the cold river was a woman named Margo Pellegrino, who happens to be a famous long distance canoeist and a Lorax for clean water, her recent trip (New York to Chicago) through waters which represent some of the most heavily polluted in the united states; the great lakes, the Hudson river, and the Erie canal, gives an eye witness account of the pollution and habitat destruction which most never experience first-hand.

Margo Pellegrino Photo Credit: Environment America

     In honor of this chance and momentary encounter we are going to try and do our part, starting by picking up more of the trash we see when we're out in our kayaks and eventually something about the disgusting mess left behind by fishermen and others at the end of Hay Road where we launch on the Mullica River.