The sun broke through the clouds as we arrived at our launch point on the Yellow Breeches Creek at Messiah College last Sunday morning. The creek flows out of the South Mountains in Pennsylvania then snakes east and north to the Susquehanna River. I don't know if it's true but the story goes that during the Revolutionary War, when the British soldiers wearing their white breeches crossed the creek they became stained from the yellow tint of the water. And so the name Yellow Breeches Creek.
Our kayaking stretch is nearly as pristine as when the Susquehannock and Shawnee Indians paddled the creek centuries ago. But, I'm sure the Indians didn't have as much fun and probably weren't filled with the exhilaration that we were. We're escaping from a crazy and stressful world; going from digital back to analog. The Indians were just fishing for a living in a strictly analog world.
The feeling on the water is one of peaceful exhilaration. We enter another world for a short time. We go where the current takes us, flowing in perfect harmony with the world around us, quietly moving with the rhythms of nature.
The experience, and it's highly recommended as an annual medicinal, is good for mind, body, and soul.
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