Editor’s note: The following first-person account of the Allegheny River Scholar’s trip is written by Joseph R. Siebert, a research scientist in pathology at Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle, and a faculty member at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Siebert attended Pitt-Bradford from 1965 - 67 and earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh at Oakland. He also received his master’s degree from Pitt’s School of Health Related Professions, before earning a second master’s degree and a Ph.D. at the University of Washington. Siebert participated in the Allegheny River Scholars canoe trip last summer.

Adventure on the Allegheny:
Alumnus recalls annual Bradford to Oakland canoe trip

Author Thomas Wolfe once proclaimed, “You can never go home again,” but that opinion is not necessarily universal. Pennsylvania’s green hills exert a powerful magnetism, one to which I succumb easily and as often as possible.

Last summer was a fine example. News of the Allegheny River Scholars’ annual canoe trip to Pittsburgh had filtered to my home in Seattle and steeped for some time on the back burner of my imagination. When the opportunity came to visit my parents in Bradford, attend my high school class reunion, and paddle the Allegheny, my wife Linda and I signed on the proverbial dotted line.

Weeks later, we found ourselves sitting in a school bus, waving through windows and wishing our children and their grandparents five days of fun. It was time to show my Idaho-born wife the Pennsylvania wilds.

Within moments, we got a feeling for just how wild the trip was going to be. Bernie Meyer, director of Pitt-Bradford’s administration of justice program and river captain, took to the center aisle, grinned and shouted, “Take a deep breath! This is the last time the bus will smell so good!”

This ignited a rollicking holler that would become the group’s signature. Later, in a more serious tone, he added, “We are a diverse group, with different backgrounds and different interests.” Indeed, around me sat university staff, administrators, faculty, students, an advisory board member, and alumni.

Before long, 51 paddlers were off on a five-day adventure down the Allegheny.

SETTLING INTO A ROUTINE

Soon, we settled into an easy routine. Each morning we were fortified by a stout breakfast, carefully overseen by alumna Saguna Nayak and cooked by rotating groups of scholars. Great meals were the norm, but no midnight leprechaun delivered the goods. Rather, 12 hard-working organizers, led by staff members Andrea Veilleux and Jackie Streb, had spent 12 months preparing for this trip, ensuring that everything would happen just right. And it did. Day after day, chests of food appeared, each packed and labeled with a skill that would excite any quartermaster.

At the end of breakfast, each of us fixed a boxed lunch, packed our bags and clumped onto the bus. Now was the time for a last snooze or perhaps a quiet chat as we rolled through thick green forests and little towns. Once to the river, other teams would go to work, unloading canoes, paddles, and life jackets. Then came a series of warm-up exercises led by Bridgett Passauer, director of Pitt-Bradford’s sport and exercise science program. In stretching what felt like every inch of body flesh, we ensured that muscles would be limber and paddling easier.

On the water, time blurred into a single peaceful image. Sometimes we seemed to be sitting still while Pennsylvania’s grandeur moved past. Hill after hill of undeveloped greenery swept up from the river, giving shelter to an abundance of animal life. Again and again, we would hear the distant scream of a hawk or up-close rattle of a kingfisher. One day, a magnificently plumed great egret rose from the shallows to lead us downstream. In another special moment, a bald eagle passed on some invisible current of air.

Occasional rains came, but they were warm and generally gone before we could pull out our rain gear. On one day — okay, make that two days — we experienced some headwinds. I found myself reciting the bicyclists’ mantra: “The wind makes you strong. The wind makes you strong,” as we bent to our paddles. But in truth, the trip did not require Olympian strength of skills, but rather a calm and steadfast “can-do” attitude.

Each day our group would stop on a scenic sand bar or forested bank for lunch and an invigorating swim. Then, more paddling until mid-afternoon, when, rounding a last bend, we would spot the big yellow bus and two vans with canoe trailers parked near the water’s edge. Seeing them was a constant reminder of the logistical details required to move a group of our size. Like any small army, canoeists travel on their stomachs, a point assured by a busy and dedicated ground crew. A large rental truck accompanied the bus and vans and was packed with the week’s provisions, cooking gear, and luggage.

A few last strokes would bring us to shore, and we were soon off to a campground or motel. This part of the day, too, had its joys. Imagine a late-afternoon shower or nap as a preamble to dinner, complete with appetizer, charcoal-roasted corn, chicken or deep-fried fish, green or fruit salad, rolls, and dessert.

SCHOLARLY TRADITIONS

Special entertainment followed some meals. One evening, The Three of Us, an acoustic guitar group, played and sang until a downpour sent everyone scurrying to clear the clotheslines. Another night, Dan Fellows, assistant professor of physics at Pitt-Bradford, led us to a large, open field. There, with a powerful flashlight, he pointed out major stars and constellations, weaving a breath-taking tales of heavenly proportions.

These evenings are part of the scholars’ tradition, a word integral to the trip’s identity. Along the way,scholars conducted water quality tests and cataloged plant and animal life. The group also has made a point of unraveling the Allegheny’s historic secrets by visiting and learning about relics along the way.

In our days on the river, we floated down several of the river’s most attractive stretches — West Hickory to President (14 canoe miles), Franklin to Kennerdell (15 miles), Kennerdell to Emlenton (18 miles), and Mosgrove to Kittanning (10 miles). Here we traversed Lock No. 7, still another homecoming for me, as I had traveled the route as a young fisherman with my grandfather years before. On our final day we set out from Sharpsburg for Pittsburgh (two miles) to enter the city in proper ceremonial style. With this last take-out, we headed to the Oakland campus for a celebration luncheon and a chance to compare campus memories. Some of us had remained in Pittsburgh after graduation and had still more stories to tell.

On the bus drive back to Bradford, I found myself doing a strange calculation. Looking around at new and old friends, I tried to determine the probability of meeting so many one-in-a-million people on a single trip. Like the astronomical figures given us beneath the stars, the number would surely challenge the faculties. It would also say a great deal about the Allegheny River Scholars and, indeed, our University.

—Joseph R. Siebert