It was mid October in 1977 that a group of us from Williamsport traveled to an area of the North Branch of the Susquehanna River for our annual duck hunting and river fishing experience. One of the members of our group leased an island in the river connected to a farm field by a concrete bridge. We were camped about one mile south of the Ulster Bridge.
We made the treks to that island with its primitive but nice camping area at least twice a year. We always had great times, especially in October when duck hunting season opened and the walleyes and bass fed regularly on the minnows and hellgrammites we seined from the river.
We left Friday afternoon in a light but steady rain. On Saturday morning, the weather was mild and still rainy, perfect for both hunting and fishing. I cannot remember how we did.
Saturday night it rained hard all through the night. When we awoke at first light on Sunday, we sent one of the young men over to check the water levels at the bridge. He came back running and yelled that the water was almost lapping at the bridge deck. That meant that we had to get out of there immediately or we could die on that island if the river overflowed because a small boat or two in a raging river would be almost useless. We must have set world records for packing because we left within minutes.
I remember that we had three vehicles on that trip because I rode with John Mosher in his Chevy Suburban. Since it was the heaviest vehicle, we went last. I will never forget the scene as we went over that bridge and the feeling when it actually shook as we traveled the 30 foot in length span. None of us were fervent Christians In those days; but I am sure that all of us prayed for our safety. When we got back to Williamsport the rain turned to ice.
The next day the power was out north of Trout Run and Loyalsockville on route 87. The ice formed on trees which still had most of their leaves. Many trees snapped in half. The broken trees that year on Armenia Mountain in Canton where I hunted deer looked like a tornado went through. Some of the folks told me when I moved to Canton in 1979, that the outlying areas had no power for 3-5 days.
When one faces a weather event, you never forget it. I lived in Williamsport during both the tropical storm Agnes in June 1972 and tropical storm Eloise in September 1975. Both were catastrophe as was the freak rain storm we had over a large snowpack in January 1996 which cost lives in Trout Run and Cogan Station.
Jim Collins is an outdoor writer for this newspaper. To contact him, email jimcollinsinsurance@frontiernet.net; or write to him at Outdoors With Jim Collins, 87 Windfall Road, Alba, PA 16910.