Same stream, different kayak. This is the earliest I've ever put into the Chartiers to do the oxbow between Heidelberg and Carnegie.
The water levels were nice and high, but not so high as to be fast moving. Never before have I paddled the Chartiers and failed to see a blue heron, but there were none to see this time. Plenty of Canada geese and wood ducks.
From Heidelberg to Carnegie, the creek meanders happily amid dark, derelict-looking mills, passes under wooded bluffs, splashing a little wildly in places, then after more than forty-five minutes, it deposits you back in Carnegie, where you parked your car. Actually, I made a day of it in Carnegie, which is a way cool little town. There's more racial diversity here than in most Western Pennsylvania boroughs. It's a miniature city with grand churches, a mosque, onion domes, a stately old library with a performance hall, walkable shady neighborhoods, and a number of old mansions. Lots of restaurants and shops crowd the main drag, and the streets come together at sharp, odd angles. Of course, the Chartiers runs through the heart of town, with attendant railroad tracks. Had lunch with a friend at the Cafe Delhi, in the Indian Community Center, which is housed in an ugly former Catholic church. Upon arrival back in Carnegie, stopped by the ever-cool Carnegie Coffee Company, located in an old post office with tall windows and high ceilings.
As you draw into the outer edges of Carnegie, houses begin to line the creek. This third view always reminds me of the line from Tennyson's great poem:
And 'ere she reached upon the tide
the first house by the waterside,
singing in her song, she died,
the Lady of Shallott.
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