Amicus
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Continuing our Memorial Day tradition of over two decades, we decided to paddle a long stretch of a River we've long talked about - the Delaware: its Upper reach and the length of the Water Gap, which is a National Park.
My eight comrades who were able to take Friday off assembled at Callicoon, NY, where they launched their four canoes late in the morning. Kev stoked their paddling furnaces with a lunch of his restaurant-supply breaded fish fillets with tartar sauce, a traditional favorite. The paddling was easy and the only real rapids - Skinners Falls - they found to be an unchallenging Class II.
They found a good campsite on the Penn. side at No. 9 RR Bridge Rapids, less than a mile above our Sat. morning rendezvous at the Ten Mile River put-in, a few miles south of Narrowsburg, NY. Drew and Tim prepared a satisfying dinner of linguini in 24-hour sauce, with garlic bread and salad. Weary from their long drives to Callicoon, the group retired early. A milk train passing through at about 20 yards serenaded them around 3 am.
We remaining four made good time after leaving Cambridge, Mass. at 4:45 am Sat. and had our canoes loaded and on the water around 10 am, about ten minutes before our colleagues paddled around the bend. The area had received no real rain in about three weeks, so the River was unseasonably low. This was unfortunate for my canoe-mate Gary, as his We-No-Nah Sundowner, a Kevlar Ultralite, was not ideal for the bumping and scraping that could not be avoided, pretty much all day Saturday and the first half of Sunday. The other canoes - Old Towns made of Royalex and similar composites - are more rugged.
We enjoyed the Valley scenery throughout our three days, with the Kittatinny Range on the NY/NJ side matched by the Poconos in Penn. We were paddling the Upper Delaware National Recreational and Scenic River, but in that area the jurisdiction of the National Park Service is confined to the River and much of the banks are privately owned.
Outfitters who rent rafts, canoes and kayaks proliferate in certain stretches, as do their camps, so don't expect a wilderness experience. On the other hand, in some very attractive stretches, particularly where the most challenging rapids discourage the inexperienced, we saw little development or paddlers, such as the ten miles from below Pond Eddy to Port Jervis, where the camps and crowds began again.
We encountered a succession of rapids, none above Class II, throughout our Saturday paddle. Many were marked on the NPS Upper Delaware map, but not all. The low water may have created some of them, and we thought another foot of water would have allowed us to glide right over many of them. As it was, we all got hung up more than once and had to do some bailing. No one tipped at any point during the weekend, however. The Friday paddlers told us that several of our Saturday rapids, such as Kunkell, gave them more to handle than had Skinners Falls. Between two rapids, we found a pleasant lunch meadow on the Penn. side and Dave M. sautéed us some excellent chicken caesar wraps for lunch.
Shortly after lunch, we passed under Roebling's Delaware Aqueduct bridge in Lackawaxen, which is the oldest surviving wire suspension bridge in the country. Right after that, we paddled through the Minisink Battleground Park, on the NY side, which memorializes a battle on July 22, 1779 between a force of Indians and Tories led by Joseph Brant, a Mohawk, Dartmouth graduate, acquaintance of King George III (from a pre-Revolutionary visit to London), and Colonel in the King's Army, and a band of Patriots who attempted to ambush Brant's force. Brant got wind of the ambush, flanked the Patriots and finally routed them, killing 55. Not every battle is a triumph, but all of the fallen must be remembered.
After paddling 21 miles, we camped at an NPS primitive site in Penn.'s Buckhorn Natural Area. Permits are required and we had one, but no one seemed to be checking. While some of the group held a horseshoe tournament, Dave J, probably our most talented chef, and his sous-chef Dave L prepared the former's Pad Thai, another favorite back by popular demand. This demanding dish kept four pans and a kettle busy at the same time, sautéing chicken, shrimp and a plethora of oriental vegetables and herbs while the noodles boiled. These had to be combined in a particular sequence, with ingredients such as eggs added at just the right moment. The result was the repeat of a culinary triumph.
After Marc's hearty breakfast of eggs, Canadian bacon, hash-browns, canteloupe and english muffins, we got a late start Sunday morning. The rapids we encountered in the six-or-so miles to Port Jervis were our most challenging and fun. Strictly Class II, but several with much bigger waves that drenched the bowmen and required a lot of bailing. The biggest was near a RR bridge, where the River bounces off the base of a cliff and veers left.
Our late start, the need to stop and bail after several rapids and a leisurely lunch of Bill's Inimitable Goop - his patented mélange of beans (including some black beans for a twist), Smithfield ham, pineapple and secret spices - meant that we had only covered about seven miles by 3 pm. At that point, we discovered a mistaken distance in a guide book we had used, which meant that our intended campsite, instead of 14 miles distant, was over 20.
The real rapids pretty much end at that point, although we did encounter a few more short stretches and many riffles, so we were able to make better time and paddled hard through the upper part of the Delaware Water Gap National Park. That represented an upgrade in scenery, although there were plenty of people at beaches and put-ins in places like Milford, PA. We continued to experience the hazy, hot weather that lasted throughout the weekend. The Delaware's waters are very clear and cool, however - good for swimming.
We spotted plenty of wildlife throughout our trip, including deer, a beaver, several very interesting amphibious reptiles, large fish, many of them jumping, that had the anglers out in droves, muskrat, and all manner of waterfowl, in particular bald eagles (suitable for the holiday), of whom we saw many, including a couple making strikes on their prey.
We finally stopped at an NPS site a few miles below Dingmans Ferry, on the Penn. side. The path up from the River was flanked by poison ivy, which abounded in that area, but it was 8:30 pm and we couldn't be picky. We had paddled 25 miles. I am happy to report that the ribeyes I grilled were delicious. Thanks to Karl, Dave J and Dave L for taking over on the fettuccini alfredo, and to Tim for contributing an extra bottle of red to augment the two I brought. Our finger-picking troubadour Chuck led us in song afterwards, and Dave L performed a science experiment over the fire.
We had many miles to cover Monday, so after enjoying Gary's tangy breakfast burritos, we got an earlier start and paddled hard and with hardly a break from 9:15 until 4 pm, a stretch of 27 miles that brought us to our take-out - the NPS Kittatinny Visitor Center at the south end of the Park.
This spot has a fine view that you can observe on the cover of the NPS Water Gap map, but it was jammed with beach-goers and outfitters offloading the rental craft that were streaming in, so our four-hour wait for our ferry vehicles to make the roundtrip was none too short, especially since the sun was baking and the buildings were closed for construction. (But for the Memorial Day Monday traffic, the commute probably would have taken closer to two hours.) That began the long drives to our homes in Mass., RI, Maine, Mich. and DC. So, a trip that required a little exertion, but was most worthy of it. Those of us who started Sat. morning paddled 73 miles, the others 93.
My pictures are here.
My eight comrades who were able to take Friday off assembled at Callicoon, NY, where they launched their four canoes late in the morning. Kev stoked their paddling furnaces with a lunch of his restaurant-supply breaded fish fillets with tartar sauce, a traditional favorite. The paddling was easy and the only real rapids - Skinners Falls - they found to be an unchallenging Class II.
They found a good campsite on the Penn. side at No. 9 RR Bridge Rapids, less than a mile above our Sat. morning rendezvous at the Ten Mile River put-in, a few miles south of Narrowsburg, NY. Drew and Tim prepared a satisfying dinner of linguini in 24-hour sauce, with garlic bread and salad. Weary from their long drives to Callicoon, the group retired early. A milk train passing through at about 20 yards serenaded them around 3 am.
We remaining four made good time after leaving Cambridge, Mass. at 4:45 am Sat. and had our canoes loaded and on the water around 10 am, about ten minutes before our colleagues paddled around the bend. The area had received no real rain in about three weeks, so the River was unseasonably low. This was unfortunate for my canoe-mate Gary, as his We-No-Nah Sundowner, a Kevlar Ultralite, was not ideal for the bumping and scraping that could not be avoided, pretty much all day Saturday and the first half of Sunday. The other canoes - Old Towns made of Royalex and similar composites - are more rugged.
We enjoyed the Valley scenery throughout our three days, with the Kittatinny Range on the NY/NJ side matched by the Poconos in Penn. We were paddling the Upper Delaware National Recreational and Scenic River, but in that area the jurisdiction of the National Park Service is confined to the River and much of the banks are privately owned.
Outfitters who rent rafts, canoes and kayaks proliferate in certain stretches, as do their camps, so don't expect a wilderness experience. On the other hand, in some very attractive stretches, particularly where the most challenging rapids discourage the inexperienced, we saw little development or paddlers, such as the ten miles from below Pond Eddy to Port Jervis, where the camps and crowds began again.
We encountered a succession of rapids, none above Class II, throughout our Saturday paddle. Many were marked on the NPS Upper Delaware map, but not all. The low water may have created some of them, and we thought another foot of water would have allowed us to glide right over many of them. As it was, we all got hung up more than once and had to do some bailing. No one tipped at any point during the weekend, however. The Friday paddlers told us that several of our Saturday rapids, such as Kunkell, gave them more to handle than had Skinners Falls. Between two rapids, we found a pleasant lunch meadow on the Penn. side and Dave M. sautéed us some excellent chicken caesar wraps for lunch.
Shortly after lunch, we passed under Roebling's Delaware Aqueduct bridge in Lackawaxen, which is the oldest surviving wire suspension bridge in the country. Right after that, we paddled through the Minisink Battleground Park, on the NY side, which memorializes a battle on July 22, 1779 between a force of Indians and Tories led by Joseph Brant, a Mohawk, Dartmouth graduate, acquaintance of King George III (from a pre-Revolutionary visit to London), and Colonel in the King's Army, and a band of Patriots who attempted to ambush Brant's force. Brant got wind of the ambush, flanked the Patriots and finally routed them, killing 55. Not every battle is a triumph, but all of the fallen must be remembered.
After paddling 21 miles, we camped at an NPS primitive site in Penn.'s Buckhorn Natural Area. Permits are required and we had one, but no one seemed to be checking. While some of the group held a horseshoe tournament, Dave J, probably our most talented chef, and his sous-chef Dave L prepared the former's Pad Thai, another favorite back by popular demand. This demanding dish kept four pans and a kettle busy at the same time, sautéing chicken, shrimp and a plethora of oriental vegetables and herbs while the noodles boiled. These had to be combined in a particular sequence, with ingredients such as eggs added at just the right moment. The result was the repeat of a culinary triumph.
After Marc's hearty breakfast of eggs, Canadian bacon, hash-browns, canteloupe and english muffins, we got a late start Sunday morning. The rapids we encountered in the six-or-so miles to Port Jervis were our most challenging and fun. Strictly Class II, but several with much bigger waves that drenched the bowmen and required a lot of bailing. The biggest was near a RR bridge, where the River bounces off the base of a cliff and veers left.
Our late start, the need to stop and bail after several rapids and a leisurely lunch of Bill's Inimitable Goop - his patented mélange of beans (including some black beans for a twist), Smithfield ham, pineapple and secret spices - meant that we had only covered about seven miles by 3 pm. At that point, we discovered a mistaken distance in a guide book we had used, which meant that our intended campsite, instead of 14 miles distant, was over 20.
The real rapids pretty much end at that point, although we did encounter a few more short stretches and many riffles, so we were able to make better time and paddled hard through the upper part of the Delaware Water Gap National Park. That represented an upgrade in scenery, although there were plenty of people at beaches and put-ins in places like Milford, PA. We continued to experience the hazy, hot weather that lasted throughout the weekend. The Delaware's waters are very clear and cool, however - good for swimming.
We spotted plenty of wildlife throughout our trip, including deer, a beaver, several very interesting amphibious reptiles, large fish, many of them jumping, that had the anglers out in droves, muskrat, and all manner of waterfowl, in particular bald eagles (suitable for the holiday), of whom we saw many, including a couple making strikes on their prey.
We finally stopped at an NPS site a few miles below Dingmans Ferry, on the Penn. side. The path up from the River was flanked by poison ivy, which abounded in that area, but it was 8:30 pm and we couldn't be picky. We had paddled 25 miles. I am happy to report that the ribeyes I grilled were delicious. Thanks to Karl, Dave J and Dave L for taking over on the fettuccini alfredo, and to Tim for contributing an extra bottle of red to augment the two I brought. Our finger-picking troubadour Chuck led us in song afterwards, and Dave L performed a science experiment over the fire.
We had many miles to cover Monday, so after enjoying Gary's tangy breakfast burritos, we got an earlier start and paddled hard and with hardly a break from 9:15 until 4 pm, a stretch of 27 miles that brought us to our take-out - the NPS Kittatinny Visitor Center at the south end of the Park.
This spot has a fine view that you can observe on the cover of the NPS Water Gap map, but it was jammed with beach-goers and outfitters offloading the rental craft that were streaming in, so our four-hour wait for our ferry vehicles to make the roundtrip was none too short, especially since the sun was baking and the buildings were closed for construction. (But for the Memorial Day Monday traffic, the commute probably would have taken closer to two hours.) That began the long drives to our homes in Mass., RI, Maine, Mich. and DC. So, a trip that required a little exertion, but was most worthy of it. Those of us who started Sat. morning paddled 73 miles, the others 93.
My pictures are here.
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