May 16, 2020 - Susquehanna West Branch -
Deep Creek Lake

I hadn't flown since mid-March thanks to the Chinese Virus and having to do my Annual Inspection.  I finally did a short post-maintenance check flight on May 10.   Today I was going to do some serious flying!   I decided I'd fly the West Branch Susquehanna River and also check out Deep Creek Lake in western Maryland.

Here is what I ended up flying -- counter-clockwise.  I ended up with about 4.5 hours of flight time, stopping at two airports.  The plane ran great.

Clemson Island Prehistoric District is a historic archaeological site and national historic district located at Halifax Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. It is a series of three spatially discrete loci. They constitute a transitional Middle Woodland - Late Woodland mound and associated village, that dates from the Early Archaic period (c. 6,900 B.C.) to the 18th century. The mound was excavated in May and June 1929.

It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.  The island is only accessible by boat and is currently a wildlife preserve.

Looks to me like it would make a good grass runway.

Passing by the town of Williamsport.  Williamsport's claim to fame is that it is the birthplace of Little League Baseball. South Williamsport, a town nearby, is the headquarters of Little League Baseball and annually hosts the Little League World Series in late summer.

Other points of interest in Williamsport include the Hiawatha riverboat, Millionaires' Row, Peter J. McGovern Little League Museum, the Community Arts Center, the Genetti Hotel, the Susquehanna Riverwalk and The Gallery at Penn College.

Renovo's major employer was the Pennsylvania Railroad and Pennsylvania Railroad Shops. As long as the railroad prospered, the town was a bustling center of activity. Some aspects of railroad business began to decrease as early as before World War II, but business surged back strongly during the War. However, further decline in demand for both passenger and freight transportation via the railroad came with the building of the St. Lawrence Seaway, the building of the Interstate Highway System, the surge of automobile ownership and use, and the consolidation of the Pennsylvania Railroad's Shop facilities to other locations such as Pittsburgh and Altoona.

The closing of the shops in the 1960s tolled the death knell for Renovo as an enterprising town with a future.

I noticed that an airport was a mile to the west.  I was tired, so I decided to stop and stretch my legs.  Here I'm on left downwind for runway 12 at Clearfield-Lawrence Airport (KFIG).

They had a nice terminal and the airport manager and some locals were friendly.  They gave me good advice on nearby airports to fly into for food.

The town of Clearfield is visible in the distance.  Interstate 80 runs through Clearfield.

The West Branch was petering out so I decided to leave the river and head south for Deep Creek Lake in western Maryland.

Now I'm going cross-country.

It's unusual to see a runway slope like this at each end.

Garrett County had a very nice FBO building.  I talked with the airport manager some, got some gas, then continued on.

Deep Creek Lake is the largest inland body of water in the state of Maryland. It covers approximately 3,900 acres and has 69 miles of shoreline.  Like all lakes in Maryland, it is man-made.

The lake is a result of the Youghiogheny Hydroelectric Company hydroelectric project on Deep Creek in the 1920s. Deep Creek Dam, located about 8 miles north of Oakland, Maryland, consists of an earth and rock wall dam across a tributary of the Youghiogheny River. Construction of the dam began in 1923 and was completed in 1925. The hydroelectric plant became operational in 1925.  The lake was purchased by the U.S. state of Maryland in 2000 from the Pennsylvania Electric Company and public access to the lake is provided by Deep Creek Lake State Park.