Five of us went on an overnight camping trip on the Delaware River, Father's Day weekend (June 19-20). The challenge was that we had to carry all camping gear and everything with us on the boats. We did the Eshback to Delaware Water Gap trip, total paddling time about 7 hours.
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The trip was done with Adventure Sport http://www.adventuresport.com/trips_2.html in Marshall's Creek, PA. We arrived at the rental office at 9am, settled up and signed our waivers. Oh, when you call and ask how much the canoes\kayaks are to rent, the price you pay is PER DAY, not the "TO RENT" amount you may have been told or ASSumed. Anyways, we then drove our cars to the Water Gap Access point, which was good because when we were finished we could just get in our cars and go, no waiting for a shuttle ride back.
Now this was where we made a mistake, trusting Adventure Sport who said there was plenty of drinking water at all the access points along the river. Well, there was NO drinking water available to us at ANY of the PA access points, and the first water we found was at the Worthington State Forest, NJ access point, near the end of the second day. I spoke to someone on Monday from Adventure Sport, who blamed it on the State Parks people not informing them that the new plumbing wasn't done on time at ALL the access points in PA. But since Adventure Sport runs the river trips, and are on it every day, they should have known better. We would have just brought more water with us. We had some water with us to start the second day, but those other access points were like mirages, not oasises. It was just a good thing we went before the summer heat waves, the night was mild and the days were sunny but not crazy hot. ok, I think I ragged on Adventure Sport about that enough, and actually, other then that, their people were very good, and yes, I'd go again with them, but I will ALWAYS carry enough water when camping, and not rely on drinking water being available along the way. It WAS ironic to need drinking water while floating down a RIVER full of the stuff for 2 days! ok, RANT OVER.... where was I?? oh yea.... the trip.
Adventure Sport took us in a van, towing the trailer, from the Delaware Water Gap up to the Eshback access point. We had 2 canoes and 2 single kayas for the 5 of us. One canoe we called "The Mule" because we loaded it with most gear and rotated one paddler in it. These canoes can hold 1100 pounds total weight, so even with 2 people you can still carry a lot of weight, not that you WANT to, because paddling a full canoe was a very good workout. The single kayaks didn't have much storage area at all, maybe the size of a small bag and jug of water.
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We started at Eshback and from there most of the way down, the river is beautiful and clean. You can look down and see the river rocks passing by below you. Other people stopped to fish (you need a fishing license). There were small mountains on either side of the river, and we saw hawks and eagles flying above. At one point we saw a large cat walking along the water's edge... wait, no, it was too large for a cat... paddled closer... a racoon? no, paddled closer... It was a bear cub! He scampered off into the woods. The first hour or so, we had headwinds, which made canoeing harder as the wind tried to turn you sideways a lot. The kayaks were much better with that wind because you sit low in the water, so less of the boat or person to catch the wind.
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There are a number of campsites along the river BUT maybe half weren't usable, with grass a few feet high. So if camping, it's a good idea to start on the river early in order to make sure you can find a spot for camping, or you may have to go a long way down river on the first day! We were sitting around the campfire around 10pm and some guy walked up the bank from the river. I thought it was a Ranger at first. But he was part of a good-sized group of people looking for any spots to pitch tents, and had paddled back upstream stopping in all the campgrounds. If you arrive by early afternoon, you should be ok, and we saw some private campgrounds that maybe you could reserve too. Camp sites were very basic... dirt, trees and a ring for camp fires. There was no water, or out-houses. Think Lewis and Clark.... well, minus the LL Bean tent! :-)
All in all, it was a good challenge, not an easy paddle even though there was a mild current when the wind eased up thankfully on Sunday. It was fun camping, after we got the tents up, we jumped in the Delaware and swam. The water was cool, not cold, and felt very good after paddling and unloading the boats. We hung out by the campfire, ate vacuum-packed foods mostly that we cooked on a small burner. It was good sleeping weather, in the 60's at night and minimal bugs. Note to self: Self, bring a mat for under the sleeping bag next time! It was fun, but seeing that I-80 bridge was nice, knowing the Water Gap access was ahead.
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| The Crew... Kyle, Jake, Jim, Bruce, Joe |
