All participants must attend the safety review prior to launching and all participants will be required to wear a personal floatation device (PFD) while they are on the water.

Conditions on the Perkiomen Creek can vary greatly from one day to the next. If the creek is too high or in any way dangerous, the Sojourn will be cancelled. There is no "raindate" for the Sojourn.

Special Thanks to our Perkiomen Sojourn sponsors:

Event Sponsor

Keenan, Ciccitto and Associates

Picnic Sponsor

Woodrow & Associates, Inc.

2009 Perkiomen Creek Sojourn
A Beautiful Day on the Perkie

The Perkiomen Watershed Conservancy and Keenan, Ciccitto and Associates hosted the Perkiomen Creek Sojourn Saturday May 23, 2009. There were experienced canoers and kayakers as well as canoe beginners on the trip that began in Schwenksville and ended at Hoy Park on Arcola Road at the Skippack Creek confluence.

Keenan, Ciccitto and Associates, a law firm headquartered in Collegeville, PA hosted the 2009 Perkiomen Creek Sojourn. Additional canoes were provided by the Wildlands Conservancy in Emmaus, Pennsylvania. Lower Providence Township offered the use of Hoy Park as a convenient location to end the Sojourn and enjoy a post sojourn picnic.

Conditions along the Perkiomen Creek can vary greatly depending on recent rainfall. A few good rains in the weeks prior to the Sojourn helped increase water levels in the Perkiomen Creek for Saturday’s adventure. The Unites States Geological Survey gage at Graterford indicated that water level was just about normal for this time of year, about 1.5 feet.

Thirty paddlers launched from Red Fox Park, just south of the Route 73 bridge in Schwenksville, PA at about 9:45 AM after a safety lecture and demonstration. Two small dams were safely portaged at Plank Road and at the Graterford island dam. Fortunately for the paddlers, the water level was high enough to minimize the need for boat dragging, which can be a standard part of paddling on the often low waters of the Perkiomen Creek.

The Perkiomen Creek between Schwenksville and the Skippack Creek is a rich, natural area with large expanses of intact floodplain forests. Birds of all kinds can be found throughout the Perkiomen forests and along the creek including mallards, many types of hawks, Great Blue Herons, Cormorants and Mergansers. The first few sojourners got to see a Bald Eagle before he swooped to a less obvious perch. Among the many birds spotted along the way was a group of merganser chicks, one of whom thought the flotilla was his mommy for quite a while. Sojourners were also treated to the trilling song of American toads along much of the trip.

The Perkiomen Watershed Conservancy hosts the Sojourn to help provide a new perspective on the Perkiomen Creek. As on Sojourner noted,” You get so accustomed to seeing the Perkiomen Creek from a bridge as you fly past. But being on the water for three hours makes you see the creek in a whole new way! It was great!”