Having made sure all our canoe stuff was left behind in Kennerdell, we drove our bikes down to Emlenton and rode back up the Allegheny River Trail to Kennerdell.
Rockland Tunnel
Back at our lodging in Kennerdell we enjoyed lunch overlooking the river.
While eating we decided we’d rather not sit in our canoe again for several hours, so I rode my bike back to pick up the van. We did take the canoe across the river to collect firewood.
This was the biggest day of our first ever family peddle/paddle adventure. It was the only day we ended up both peddling and paddling.
Having double checked that we were leaving behind all our needed bike gear (helmets, bags, pumps), we set off for Franklin with our Canoe.
We pushed off and began our five hour paddle back to Kennerdell. Along the way we enjoyed bald eagles (at one point we saw two flying together, but I was not quick enough with the camera), kingfishers, ducks, geese, Belmar Bridge, and lots of beautiful fall foliage. We explored some islands as well.
Geese overhead
bald eagle in flight
close up of bald eagle in flight
Belmar Bridge
When we arrived at our lodging in Kennerdell, we beached our canoe and got ready to bike back to Franklin. The bike portion started with the fun journey through the long Kennerdell tunnel (can’t see the other end). Along the way we enjoyed still more foliage. Felicity spotted a juvenile bald eagle quite close to the trail (I was again too slow with the camera). And we realized we had not adequately accounted for how quickly the weather would get colder as the sun went down.
