ATTENTION ALL CLUB MEMBERS! IMPORTANT!
READ: DRAFT OF LVKCC POLICY MANUAL
Welcome to the
Lehigh Valley Kayak and Canoe Club
SPRING ICEBREAKER
Attention Paddlers!
Due to heavy rains the Lehigh is running very high!
Running the “Ledges” before the meeting is not recommended for beginners!
Join us for an outdoor party to kick off the kayaking season. Find out who we are and what we do. All members and prospective members are welcome. We’ll have food and beverages. No admission. Just stop by for a chat and a bite. Club members are encouraged to invite their kayaking friends.
If you are a club member who does whitewater and are equipped for cold water, be ready to shuttle at 5 p.m. to play on the Lehigh River ledges.
WHEN: 7-9 p.m. Thursday, May 6. Paddlers ready to shuttle at 5 p.m. at the launch ramp next to the bridge.
WHERE: Lehigh Gap Nature Center pavilion. On the lower drive next to the butterfly garden. Park in the lot by the center and walk down through the garden to the left of the building. Google link here.
FOOD: Cold cut sandwiches, pasta salad, chips and soft drinks will be provided. If you’d like to bring snacks or desserts, please wrap them in individual servings.
COVID SAFETY: We will be outdoors and have room to spread out as much as we need to. Wear masks when near others. The pavilion has picnic tables, but bring a chair for more elbow room.
MEETING: There will be a very short business meeting before the end of the party.
RSVP: Please let us know if you are coming not later than Sunday, May 2. Please email Dave if you are coming at
dl-dawson@rcn.com
Try my kayak day
Saturday, May 22,2021
Beltzville State Park
10 AM to 4 PM
Join us at Beltzville Lake May 22 to spend the day learning about and trying out different kayaks. We’ll hang out at a pavilion reserved for the club. There will be clinics on paddling, equipment and Greenland paddles. Bring your boat to let other club members give it a whirl while you check out theirs. The focus will be on touring kayaks, but all club members and their boats are welcome. We will have rotomolded, fiberglass, and even an Aleut Baidarka in the fleet.
Bring lunch, drinks and snacks. (But no alcohol in the park.) There are charcoal grills at the pavilion if you want to fire one up. The event starts at 10 a.m. and wraps up at 4 p.m.
The meeting place is Pavilion #2. Go into the main entrance for the beach at Beltzville Lake. It’s on the north side of the lake on Pohopoco Drive. Turn right at the stop sign and then follow the park road straight to the very end. You’ll find yourself driving through the very long parking lot that runs behind the picnic grove. Park as close to the end of the lot as you can. There is a paved path that runs from the far end of the lot to the pavilion. If you have wheels for your boat, you’ll find them helpful.
You must be an LVKCC club member to participate. Click blur button above to join!
LVKCC Announces Classes for 2021
JUST ONE SPOT LEFT FOR OPEN WATER!
The Lehigh Valley Kayak and Canoe Club will be offering the following classes in 2021:
Introduction to Recreational Kayaking
Open Water Kayaking
Moving Water Kayaking
Birds, Crabs and Kayaks
LVKCC 2021 Spring trip
Every year in mid-May hordes of horseshoe crabs emerge from the Delaware Bay along southern New Jersey for their annual mating ritual. Waiting for them are thousands upon thousands of shorebirds, ready to feast on the plentiful supply of crab eggs. It’s quite a spectacle. And what better way to take it in than by kayak?
The plan: Camp at Belleplain State Park from Friday, May 14, to Monday, May 17. The campground puts us smack in the middle of lots of good kayaking – The winding Maurice River, the big estuaries behind Sea Isle City, the windswept Cape May peninsula, and the endless miles of wildlife protected shoreline of Delaware Bay. As always, there will be trips for paddlers of all skills – from protected creeks and bays to big, open water, and from casual half-day trips to extended day-long excursions.
Because we don’t expect to be out of the covid era, this will be a camping-only weekend. The club will be able to reserve a group of sites at Belleplain, but the park cabins are not expected to be open in May. But tents, trailers and RVs are all good. Campers will bring and prepare their own food. Total cost for the weekend is expected to run around $30, so the usual $50 trip deposit won’t be required.
If you would like to attend, please email Dave Dawson – dl-dawson@rcn.co — before February 1 so we can reserve the number of campsites we will need. Please include the number in your party and how many tents you will set up.
Release dates for the Lehigh River have been announced!
The U.S. Army Corps Engineers’ Philadelphia District released the 2021 Flow Management Plan for the Francis E. Walter Dam in White Haven, PA. The plan, developed in partnership with Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, and the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, lists dates and release amounts for whitewater and fisheries releases for the recreation seasons. This year, water is again being allocated to ensure white water releases from 1 July through Sunday 22 August and fisheries releases from 1 July through Friday 3 September, while relying on seasonal precipitation and additional water accumulations to allow scheduling of releases for later in the season (late August through mid-October).
2021 planned dates (22) for fishing releases (target 400 cubic feet per second)* are:
- March: 6, 7, 13, 14, 20, 21, 27, 28
- April: 3, 4, 10, 11, 17, 18, 24, 25
- May: 1, 2, 8, 9, 16, 23
Planned white water release dates (24) are listed below. All other dates during the recreation season, until the weekend of October 9-10 have a planned fisheries augmentation release of at least 50 cfs if sufficient water is available.
- May: 15, 22, 29, 30
- June: 12, 13, 26, 27
- July: 10, 11, 24, 25, 31
- August: 1, 7, 8, 14, 15, 21, 22, 28*, 29*
- September: 4*, 5*
- October: as provided by end of year releases around the weekend of 9-10 October (see plan for full details)
In 2021, the Army Corps is holding a total of 22 fishing releases and 24 whitewater release dates (four of which are dependent on additional precipitation along with fisheries enhancement releases on all other days during the recreation season). All dates are dependent on hydrologic conditions and the absence of the need for flood control operations.
It is time to renew your membership in the Lehigh Valley Kayak and Canoe Club for 2021!
It is easy to join. Just click on the membership button and follow the directions. You can pay on line or send you club application to our P.O. Box on the application. Make all checks /money order payable to the LVKCC.
January 2, 2020
District Engineer, Philadelphia District
US Army Corps of Engineers
Planning Division
100 Penn Square East
Philadelphia, PA 19107
RE: Francis E. Walter Dam Reevaluation Study
Lt. Colonel Park:
The Lehigh Valley Kayak and Canoe Club (LVKCC) is a not for profit recreational club that supports and advocates for the paddlesports community in the Lehigh Valley. We have been in continuous operation since 1989 and currently have over 380 active, dues paying members representing some 250 families from throughout the region.
The Lehigh Valley Kayak and Canoe Club is one of the largest active paddling clubs in the country, representing all types of paddlesports (kayak, canoe, raft and standup paddle boarding) in all types of water from calm lakes to whitewater to the open ocean. We support trips in all venues and have an extensive instructional program to provide our members with the latest equipment, techniques and safety. The Lehigh River is our main venue for trips and training on both simple moving water and whitewater. Our members regularly use and support access programs for the entire length of the river from White Haven to Easton. In addition to countless ad hoc trips and activities by our members, the LVKCC conducts as many as two dozen formal trips and classes on the river over the summer and fall months, typically coordinated with the release schedule.
The LVKCC has been active in its support of whitewater recreational releases to the Lehigh River from FEW dam since the current cooperative management began in 2005. We regularly send a representative to the meetings when the USACE announces a new plan to make sure that the Corps is aware of our continuing use of this valuable resource. We were particularly concerned when we learned about the Feasibility Study that would change this process and potentially our ability to use the river as we have become accustomed.
As we understand it, the proposal from New York City is to obtain control over water in the FEW dam to support potential future withdrawals of drinking water from the upper Delaware River. The water would then be released as needed to support the requirements for water level in the lower Delaware. We are concerned that this will eventually result in fewer and lower quantity recreational releases to the Lehigh River over the summer. It seems likely that not only would the releases be less frequent and the quantities undefined, the dates and times would be predicated on water need and not predictable in advance. This would make it very difficult for us to plan our events, classes and other activities on the river.
Although it is possible to paddle under base flow conditions in the lower portions of the Lehigh River (between Lehighton and Allentown), our members particularly like to paddle the Class II and III whitewater between White Haven and Jim Thorpe. This section would not normally run at levels high enough to support recreational paddling except for during storm events. Unfortunately storm events are not predictable in either date or quantity, therefore planning for club activities in this section would no longer be possible, greatly diminishing our use of the resource.
The LVKCC and its members wish to declare their strong opposition to any proposal that results in a reduction in either the quantity or frequency of recreational releases to the Lehigh River from the FEW dam for any reason. Any future management plan must remain consistent with the dam’s authorized purpose for recreation and flood control.
Sincerely,
Pat Beltz, President
Lehigh Valley Kayak and Canoe Club
c: Dan Caprioli
Steve Rochette
