DAY 7 "Woke up to sunshine today!  Wow what a change. 

Had a late breakfast on the porch of a closed ice cream shop (Scrambled Eggs and the old faithful Starbuck Via)  and then paddled out for an open water stretch heading to Safe Harbor Dam.  I had called ahead and told the mgr I would be their at 10 am for the Portage around the Dam.

This section of the river gets to be about 3/4 of a mile wide or so and is a large basin controlled by the Dam.  Saw a neat old water outflow that looked like a waterfall from a couple miles away so went over and shot a few pics.  When I got to the ramp at the base of the Safe Harbor Dam, Doug the manager was waiting with a PU truck to haul me around the Dam and to a stream that feeds into the main river below the Dam.  Real nice guy and great little park they left me off at.  Paddle out into the main river and then down to the Pequea Creek and then made a herculean (in my mind!) effort to paddle up the creek about 1.2 miles to the campground.  Made it over a couple rapids and into the fast water above and then ran out of gas a the 1 mile mark.  Had to bail and walk the kayak on a line up the creek the last .2m to the campground. 

The manager was standing on the bank and looked down into the river and said “your wife called and said you were coming, did you really paddle up that creek?”  He was cleaning up from having 18” of water in the campground which was 6’ above the creek I was in.  Big flood.  

Great little campground owned by PP&L (owns the Safe Harbor Dam) and had a chance to spread everything out finally and dry it.  Dave L. was coming tonight to join me for tomorrows 24 mile + two Dam journey so had to get cleaned up to see my first visitor!  Had a nice fire on the river bank.

Outflow from Mountain!" - Dan

Day Five

"Started the day with a break in the rain till I pushed off and the it rained till 1pm. Went through two black diamond rapids in the first hour. Went past the statue of liberty ( Harrisburg has one in the middle of the river) but was white knuckling the paddle in rapids so no pic. Saw lots of black ducks, woodducks, mallards and another 100 great blue herons. Also saw my first bald eagle up close on the trip.  Portaged the downtown dock street dam. I now understand how the word Dam evolved into a swear word. Went another 15 miles looking for a place to camp. Hit random rapids across from the Harrisburg airport and got another unwanted thrill ride. Camping across from three mile island and admiring the two headed ducks! (WHOA!) All good. Big fun.

And Penny,  thanks for giving a homeless man a hot cup of coffee with chicory in a driving rainstorm. It was appreciated.

Meeting some really great people and scaring a few as well. No one gets by without a flyer and a intro to Alexs. - Dan"

- - - -

REMEMBER WHY HE IS DOING THIS EVERYONE!

These children are fighting for their lives and while Dan is on the water he is risking his own. He is doing this to get the word out about why it is so important to be a part of this fight!

GO Dan-O!

Til the end of Day 6..

-Laurie Z

Hello! Good Monday Mornin' to you all!

Sorry I am a little late with the updates, I had to go out of town.

Anywho, first things FIRST. DAN TOPP HAS RAISED OVER $10,000 in the fight against childhood cancer! Way to go Dan and of course everyone who donated. Our whole team could not have done this without your support.

So here we go...

DAN VS WILD (See all photos from the trip on the fundraising homepage)

October 1- THE KICKOFF

"Well the huge rain storm has the river over its banks and running very fast and bumpy and yes...thrilling! The boat ramp dock is out of sight underwater.  I was joined by the Creek Freak Kayak Team for the first 6 miles or so of the adventure. We got on the water a little after 10 am. Thanks for all the support. It's game time!" -Dan

October 2 - "Sunbury Fabridam Portage. The damn here is under 14" of water from the rain storm!

Day two was aggressive with 28 plus miles and two dams. River is still very flooded at 14' above last weeks level.  Lots of full trees floating down. I had no access to the river banks as it is flooded into the tree line. I was extra careful and all went well.  Not a single person sighted on the river in two days?  Hmmmm...wonder why?

The quote of the day from two Harley bikers at the dam was 'we wondered who would  be crazy enough to be out there, when we saw you flying through the debris"- Dan

October 3 - "The Red Carpet Inn looks inviting after last night freight train every two hours!!  I'll try to send the 4:00am sound track next.  All is well. Weather us holding. Got a good start today. Smiling ear to ear as the river is gorgeous!

Rain storm coming tonight and for next couple days. I'll whine about that when it happens. Based on the comfort of my tent I have come to believe that the big RV bus mfgs make the tents as well and sell them to men real cheap. Once you spend a couple nights in one of these you start dreaming of a RV like Kenny Chesney rolls in!

Here was my big challenge today:  I had 10 ounces of clean water left at sunup. You need 10 ounces for the Starbuck instant coffee and another 10 ounces for Mountain House freeze dried bacon and eggs. What do you do? I went with extra dry freeze dried bacon and eggs and really strong black coffee.  The eggs were like corn flakes but the coffee made up for it. Ok that's it for tonight cause my lantern quit last night and the sun just set. Looking forward to day four."

yea you're pretty much the man.

until tomorrow...have a good day everyone!

-Laurie Z :)

Geez! I don't blog for a few weeks then twice in one day! Boy youre lucky :)

Anyway, I just got done talking to the main man himself Mr Dan Topp and he told me about his weekend.

He took the KARMA KAYAK up to Williamsport, PA and took a 2 hour paddling lesson with Kevin O’Shea of Country Ski & Sport of Montoursville. Kevin was nice enough to set me Dan up with some safety gear, a life preserver and whistle as well as tips on paddling and reading the water.  Dan said the river is running low so rocks and trees are a hazard but the water speed will be down and more manageable.

Dan also did some shopping. He went to REI and stocked up on freeze dried beans, rice and freeze dried eggs for a light weight menu. (Geez that sounds delicious, eh?...all for the cause and a GREAT one at that)

And I see I am very persuasive haha we are now only $2330 from our goal! Cmon people we're almost there!!!

The countdown is on ---> 11 days.

Are you ready Mr. Topp?!