Day 11 - arrival in Hammondsport

 

Penn Yan to Hammondsport

23 miles

 

My boat sits in the grass in Alan’s back yard here in Hammondsport. I think I hear it whimpering, or panting. It wants to go further. I love my boat.

Me? I’m showered, shaved, hydrated, and now liberated from the stocks of the oars and foot brace. I’m at once sad that it’s over, like my boat, but also ready to ‘stop rocking’ and get back to friends, family, and home.    

Today’s row was by far the most pleasurable. Keuka Lake is utterly charming: great water, accessible shorelines, nice vistas of vineyards and forests, and today, not much boat traffic. The aquatic grasses don’t seem to be as prevalent as on Seneca, and as I rowed the shoreline I took great comfort and even envy that each of these residences receives an inspection of their septic system every 5 years. This commitment to a common standard for the common good, a recognition of each property owner’s responsibility, makes me believe that if I come back here in five or ten years, I’ll see a remarkably clean lake. Well done, Keuka community! I sure hope we Lake George natives can follow your example in the name of prevention and not out of a need for future remediation!

So, it’s over. My friend Alan will squire me around Hammondsport and its environs for the next few days, and then he’ll drive me home, and I'll do my best to reciprocate. One thing's for sure, I can never repay the many kindnesses that a score or more people have shown me over the last eleven days, but I can pay it forward to the next person, and then the next, and in that way try to close a loop, make a chain.

I do find myself wondering how this may have worked as a ‘fundraiser.’ The Lake George Association, The Friends of the Outlet Trail, The Keuka Lake Association …hopefully they saw some checks trickle in?

I hope, too, that through the banality and silly stories the reader may have been incited to investigate and prod processes that will lead to cleaner water, to more thoughtful and even urgent environmental stewardship. Everybody’s going a mile a minute these days, stressed and distracted, and I’ve had the profound luxury of eleven days facing backwards in a boat going 4 mph. Such time ignites reflection. Such views off the stern invite awe, joy, and alarm in equal measure.

I do hope we can do what we have to do to save it before we lose it. If these pages have brought you outside to think about these things with me, then that’s something.    

I’m already missing you.

xxoo