glad you made it
I’m glad you made the trip – in retrospect I wish I had roused a couple of my friends and made it too, since the weather did clear for it and it looked great on TV.
Since you now know the launch site on the South Side I can highly recommend doing the paddle in the other direction, from there at the Birmingham Bridge upstream to Duck Hollow just past the Homestead High Level Bridge. You can either set up a shuttle to there or just paddle up and back. At normal river levels the round trip takes about 5 hours at a leisurely pace with a lunch stop at Duck Hollow – I think the distance is around 12 miles round trip, maybe 10. Paddling upstream on the Mon is actually often easier than downstream with the current because the winds tend to come up river from the west. Check the USGS gauge listing for the Mon at Elizabeth to see how the flow and water height are before you head out.
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/usa/nwis/uv?03075070
There are closer gauges but they don’t give as much information particularly for flow that day. Average flow is 2500 to 3500 cps (it is only around 1200 cps today, which is very low). I would not go on it above 10,000 CPS – I have paddled it as high as 12,000 and it was a real bear trying to do the last couple of miles upstream. And high flow usually means heavy recent rains which increases trash and strainers in the river as well as comingled sewage overflow. I think it’s a good idea to bring antiseptic handwipes to get the river water off your hands before handling any snacks.
If you want to add more distance you can keep going southeast towards the Rankin Bridge and Kennywood, where it’s fun to hear people screaming on the roller coasters. Keep well clear of the Braddock dam unless you plan to go through the locks.
Wildlife is common along these farther reaches of the Mon and we often see deer, fox, eagles, large snakes, waterfowl, herons, kingfishers and even a beaver once. The abandoned steel mill docks and machinery foundations along the banks remind me of the archaeological remains of ancient temples and in summer many are festooned with wildflowers.