The following is an excerpt from Ross Kribbs' article entitled: "The Same Susquehanna: A paddle from the river’s source to the Chesapeake Bay"

On June 2nd of this year, I slid my overloaded kayak into the waters of Lake Otsego, paddled just beyond a dock filled with sailboats, made a sharp turn to the right, and headed to the Chesapeake Bay. By car, that destination is a 5-hour drive, but I followed a slower, wetter route: 444 miles on the Susquehanna River.
As a professional photographer currently living in Colorado, I’m quite familiar with impressive scenery and dramatic landscapes; the Rocky Mountains offer an embarrassment of visual riches. But I grew up in central Pennsylvania, and I’ve never tired of the more subtle beauty of the hills on this side of the continent – and of a particular river that runs through them.
For the past few years, I’ve made plenty of photographs of the Susquehanna River, mostly during visits to family near Lewisburg, on the river’s West Branch. Before moving to Colorado, I’d even spent a year as a photographer at the local newspaper in Sunbury, PA, the confluence of the two river branches and the point where they begin their final push to the Chesapeake. Over time, my interest in documenting the river became a serious personal project, and a book is in the works. As my collection of images grew, so did my knowledge of the river itself – though I admit I’m still catching up on its voluminous
history. I’m not sure when I decided to paddle the whole thing, but the concept made immediate sense. From a photographic perspective, it’d be the ultimate scouting trip: what better way to see the river and not miss a single mile? And from a purely personal standpoint, it just sounded like a challenge and a thrill. It was both.