Paddle

LIKE A RICH AND timeless book, the Chesapeake marshes are something one can revisit again and again, gaining insight and renewed inspiration. This time of year, when the shadbush froths from woodland edges and the lustrous buds of maples rouge the swamps, several of us return to a chapter that unfolds across lower Dorchester County. It begins on the Nanticoke River side of Elliott Island and proceeds westward, a four-day paddle through the heart of the vast public holdings that include Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge and the state's Fishing Bay Wildlife Management Area.

It will take 3,024,000 strokes of their canoe paddles.But by next week, an Annapolis school group expects to paddle at least this much -- after completing the first student trip the length of the Susquehanna River.That's 448 shoulder-burning, arm-aching, blister-popping miles from the river's headwaters at Cooperstown, N.Y., to its mouth at Havre de Grace, plus at least another hundred to paddle southward into the Chesapeake Bay."I wanted to find my limits," said Page Madden, 14, a ninth-grader at the Key School, the private Annapolis high school that organized the trip.

One unfortunate byproduct of spring is that sidewalks, parks and other outdoor gathering places are again filling with young lovers, who are surely among the most annoying people on the planet.Regular readers of this column know that I have a sunny, upbeat personality, with an amazing tolerance for all types of human behavior, no matter how quirky.Certainly I could never in any way be considered . . . anti-romance.Nevertheless, seeing all these hormone-fueled couples strolling arm-in-arm and gazing soulfully into each other's eyes and whispering gooey nothingisms such as "Is Snuggles getting hungry?"

Share your good news and events with the community. Contact Laurel Leader editorial assistant Pat Farmer, paf1@patuxent.com , or phone and fax 410-332-6653. Sing-A-Thon — Fri., June 10, 6-9 p.m., New Weave Building of Historic Savage Mill, 8600 Foundry St., Savage. Benefits the Columbia Center for Theatrical Arts Teen Professional Theatre. Support the theater's summer production of "Aida" by sponsoring a performer at the Sing-A-Thon. Cast members, CCTA students and alumni from past performances appear in 10-minute increments.

Kevin Weaver refers to himself as "Rudderhead," a self-derisive reference to the amount of time he spent upside-down when he was learning whitewater kayaking.The small plastic craft flips easily -- like everything else, it's a question of balance -- and the paddler must right himself in a matter of seconds or pull what passes for a rip cord and drop out of the boat. Or else you become a rudderhead, floating downstream at the mercy of whatever might crop up along the way."I coined that term my first day," said Weaver, a 45-year-old mental health administrator from Catonsville.

Paddle boat owner has earned his dock I find it ironic that Ed Kane, who did so much to make the Inner Harbor an international attraction, will lose his paddle boat business to a nonprofit organization that probably would not exist if not for Kane's investment, time and effort in turning Baltimore's Inner Harbor into a viable, tourist-friendly attraction ("Inner Harbor paddle boats sit idle as owner fights city over dock," May 11). The Inner Harbor has many fathers, mothers and other relatives now that it's a success.

HAVRE de GRACE -- May is the weather-window for climbing Mt. Everest, and also for paddling Deer Creek.In the Himalayas, this month is the break between winter and the summer monsoons when the mountains are supposed to be safe to climb, or so it said in the newspaper reports about the eight climbers just killed in a single May storm. In Harford County it's a period when Deer Creek is especially beautiful, and when water levels are generally high enough for good canoeing and kayaking without being dangerous.

In these times of international tension, real news professionals disregard their personal safety and head for the world's trouble spots. Thus it was that recently I traveled to the U.S. Virgin Islands, where I faced the very real danger that, as a journalist in the field, many of my expenses would be tax-deductible. The Virgin Islands are located in the Caribbean, which gets its name from the Indian words "Cari," meaning "body of water," and "bbean," meaning "that makes you really glad your computer has a spell checker."

It takes only a few postcards from exotic locales to make a perfectly content human being whine, "Boy, what am I going to do this summer?"Sound familiar?Perhaps, like me, you have no plans to jet off to the south of France, to quaff red wine and nibble cured olives, as my friends are going to do. Or to cruise around the Hawaiian Islands, practicing the hula along the way, as my sister will be doing this summer.Money a little tight? Not to worry. We've found lots of great things you can do this summer in and around Baltimore, and within driving distance of the city.

So, tonight we find out who's making it into next week's finale! (It's also the 300th episode of "Dancing with the Stars. ") And this is the next to last results show I'll ever recap, given the announcement that in the fall, there will no longer be a separate results show . I'm not feeling good about that, but we'll see. The show starts with five pro couples in a routine and then they're joined by five more couples. In case you had any doubt who the stars of this show really are, Derek Hough and Mark Ballas are choreographed at the front of the dancers during an extended section of the number.