Kayaker to complete 230-mile river trek after stopover at Columbia River Park

Alan Walsh made a stopover at Columbia River Park before embarking on the final leg of his 230-mile Susquehanna River trek.

Alan Walsh's philosophy has always been "If you don't do it, you won't do it." He has now applied that credo and is doing something he always wanted to do: kayak a stretch of the Susquehanna - in this case the 230-mile trek from Sayre, PA to Havre de Grace, MD.

Once he decided to undertake the journey, he got to work planning and training a few weeks ago. Besides workouts with the kayak, the prep work included packing provisions such as MRE's (packaged, ready-to-eat meals) and granola bars, as well as a yoga map and tarp for use during stopovers along the way. He didn't stow water, though, because he figured he had a lot of it already - a riverful, in fact. He uses a special filter (shown below) that helps make river water safe to drink. He also packed an "old-school" folding paper map that he calls his "road map" to identify sites along the way.

This LifeStraw filters river water, helping to make it safe to drink.

As he was about to embark from Columbia River Park this morning, Walsh said he'd been on the river for 8 days and hopes to finish the final leg of the journey today - the 40-mile trip to Havre de Grace, where his wife will pick him up for the drive home to Troy, PA.

Walsh left River Park this morning, heading for Havre de Grace.