An effort is underway in south-central New York to attract people to a 190-mile stretch of the Chemung and Susquehanna Rivers for recreation. Paddle The 607 – a nod to the regional area code – is being developed by local tourism leaders. It aims to be a resource for paddling itineraries, access points and amenities along the waterway. Cassandra Harrington, the team captain of the New York Susquehanna Basin Water Trail who also works as the tourism promotion agent for Otsego and Schoharie counties, spoke with WAMC about the effort.
Harrington: Right now we're hoping to map out the areas of the river that are most ready and welcoming for safe recreational paddle. I always say to that probably one of the unsung missions of this is to also identify the places that are not safe for recreational paddling, whether because there's a dam or other hazards, and we want to make sure that if someone wants to utilize the river system that they're doing it safely and in the right places. So we'll be mapping out access points, and small paddles for different skill levels and hopefully, ultimately bringing in some additional visitors to the area which will then cause economic impact for years to come.
Levulis: And we're discussing about 190 miles of the Chemung and Susquehanna Rivers from Cooperstown to Corning. Can you kind of describe what those sections of waterway look like? Such things as like camping near the rivers resupply areas, that sort of thing?
There are certainly a couple of outfitters along the way. There's one in Portlandville, that's not too far from the village of Cooperstown. And the town of Bainbridge actually is just located right along the river. And they have a public park. And they cater to paddlers very well I'm told. They're actually in the midst right now of planning the General Clinton Canoe Regatta, which is the longest canoe race in the world. It happens every Memorial Day weekend. So they're situated pretty well to cater to paddlers. And then right now we're really in the discovery phase. The people who are working on the project, primarily are marketers like myself, so I'm representing at Otsego County and then my colleagues are in Binghamton, and Corning and Tioga. And so, while we may be recreational paddlers on occasion, we're not super familiar with the river. So we've actually enlisted a couple of folks throughout the community, volunteers who are very intimately aware of all the things along the river, and they're helping us out with the identification process, which will then be the basis for our mapping.
This effort has a website that is being built out called paddlethe607.com. Once it's complete, what sort of resources will be available there?
We'll have a full map of the trail from Cooperstown to Corning. But then we have identified as part of a previous project that was done with the National Park Service, we've identified nine segments of those two rivers that are completely ready for paddling. Those nine segments, of varying distance, we're going to do detailed maps of those. So if someone wants to paddle, I'm sure we'll give them all a name, from Cooperstown down to Oneonta say, we will have those segments mapped out for them to do so. So planning little day trips or, you know being an additional resource for the people who are doing the full 444 and heading down to the Chesapeake Bay. We've worked really closely with our partners in Pennsylvania to make sure that the system that we're building complements theirs and that if anybody is traveling across state lines, they won't be confused or you know have to adapt to different maps or different signage, hopefully building out one cohesive river experience for people.
I know you're still in the fact-finding portion of this. But practically speaking, can you actually go the entire 190 miles without getting out of the water at this point?
You cannot no there, there are quite a bit of places where like I said, we're trying to keep folks off the river because there are dams or other hazards. So you actually can't get very far in Cooperstown without having to do a little portage around a small dam just after the start. So again, bringing awareness to those things and making sure that people are prepared if they launch at Lakefront Park and head down the river to know that that that obstacle is there. And maybe they should consider launching a mile south of that.
You mentioned the partners in Pennsylvania, and New York State, of course, has made an effort to market the Erie Canal as a recreational asset. A good portion even of the Empire State trail follows alongside the canal. Was there a particular water trail that this effort sought inspiration or is seeking ideas from?
Well, we've always aspired to work with Pennsylvania, because they've got a good portion of the Susquehanna River. And they've done a lot of this work already. So we've looked up to them in terms of how it's been done and what works and what doesn't work. The original inception of the project started with a colleague who used to work in Corning, and prior to his Corning gig worked in Virginia, and he was part of a water trail building project there. So he decided to try to initiate that here. He has since moved back to Virginia. So the inception was a little bit of a mixed bag. But we know that the success of the Erie Canal has been huge for the mid-part of New York State and our river system is beautiful, but it's an untapped resource. And I think for some people, it is a bit of a pain point because it has caused some destruction and we're hoping especially for tourism sake to build a better relationship with the river and use it to leverage some additional income coming in from outside areas and also to provide some recreational variety for our residents.
