I live near the Delaware Canal.
From the canal park web site:
"The Delaware Canal is the only remaining continuously intact canal of the great towpath canal building era of the early and mid-19th century. Mule drawn canal boat rides and the Lock Tender's House Visitor Center are at New Hope" In 2004, 2005 and 2006, the Delaware river flooded and destroyed huge sections of the canal. While some repairs were made in 2005, they were incomplete. For five years, the canal was left partly drained, and nature quickly took over.
Fortunately, about 2 1/2 years ago, they started a rebuilding project on the canal, and this past July 23rd, they opened the fill gates and started re-filling the canal.
The re-filling of the canal meant that a 20 year tradition here in our area - the "Upper Black Eddy Decorated Canoe Parade" - could resume after a five year hiatus.
However, in five years, trees grow, some fall and aquatic weeds grow thick. There was no way to get a canoe down the one-mile parade route with all of the branches and trees and cat-tails and so on along the way.
So, today, several local folks loaded up a rowboat with pole saws, chain saws, ropes, machetes, rakes and more, and waded into the canal at the parade start and we slogged our way down-river for a mile in belly-deep to chest-deep water, in mud that ranged from over your feet to up to your knees and we cleared every last fallen tree, pulled out huge branches and logs, trimmed back cattails and pushed massive clumps of weeds out of the way.
That's me in the white hat and blue shirt, and my son, with his back to the camera, with the hedge trimmer.
There are many homes along the canal, and there's a path along side the canal. Several folks who saw us working changed their clothes and jumped right into the canal with us (and the fishing spiders, eels, leeches and snapping turtles and through the stinging nettle).
At one point, the state park police showed up - we didn't ask for permission or tell anyone of our plans - and all they had to say was "thank you" - and they asked us to keep the cut up branches off the tow-path.
I am fairly certain that using my chainsaw while sanding in chest-deep water must violate some part of the warranty, but I looked over the manual when I get home and it didn't say anything specifically about that, so I think I'm OK.
Although both my legs are red with welts from all the stinging nettle that lined the canal sides, and I have more than a few scrapes and bumps, it was a fantastic day all around.
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