| Paddler
Magazine - June 1996 |
The Monocacy Canoe Club
(MCC) is the fastest growing paddling organization in
the Baltimore-Washington, D.C., area, and is also the
club most steeped in tradition.
Is this a paradox? We think not. |
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| The
Cruise Schedule... |
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The
rock solid core of the club is its
annual cruise schedule, currently
featuring more than 100 river trips,
canoe campers, out-of-state paddling
weeks, dam-release weekends, family
float trips and canoe sailing.
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MCC
also offers classes in basic canoeing
and kayaking, whitewater instruction,
and river safety clinics.
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The
tradition of maintaining this annual
cruise schedule was established in
1962, and today the schedule is supplemented
by a telephone hotline to list changes
and additions, including pick- up
trips.
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| Many members have been active
in the club 20 years or longer, and there is a tradition
of oral history that gives the MCC its vibrancy. |
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On
a low water run of historic Antietam Creek, one can
listen to guidebook author Roger Corbett explain how
the painted "Randy Carter" gauges on bridge abutments
often show a "canoeing zero" level considered too shallow
by some, because the late Randy Carter, a member of
the club in its formative years, was the finest low
water paddler known.
Bob
Burrell, the original author of Wildwater West Virginia,
was also a MCC member, and penned a little ditty for
the 1973 newsletter under the pen name
"The Bard of the North Fork."
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| The club's evolving history
is documented in a quarterly publication called the Smoke
Signal. A typical issue will contain trip reports from
a dozen authors highlighting the names of each participant
with special good-natured delight given to the comedy
of the day--generally SWIMS and other forms of embarrassment.
Our fearless editor will also include as many photos as
possible, and does a good job of intermixing river shots
with personalities. |
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| New
traditions...are
developing all the time in the Monocacy Canoe
Club. |
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Playboating
and creeking are popular activities among
some of the club members.
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We even have
a few racerheads who will be vying for spots
on the U.S. Canoe
and Kayak Team.
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But every year the new and old
gather at the November Pot Luck Supper and the Winter Program
Meetings to share adventures and sense of community together.
"Eventually all things merge into one, and a river runs through
it."
-Kathy Streletzky-
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