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| A view of Roebling's Delaware Aqueduct from the river |
When most people hear the words “Delaware
River” it conjures up an image of George Washington standing in a
boat, surrounded by ice, while his troops did all the rowing. Let’s flash
forward about 230 years and head upriver about 150 miles…oh yeah, and make it
summertime. Here, the river cuts through a canopy of green trees, the water is
cool and refreshing, and peoples’ interests lie in attacking whitewater rapids,
not German mercenaries. Here the river is a place of respite and recreation.
Every summer hundreds of thousands of people flock to the Upper Delaware
Scenic & Recreational River for boating, fishing, camping, and
wildlife viewing. On any given summer day, rafts, canoes, and kayaks mingle with
anglers, swimmers, and spectators on the water and around the shore. With about
a half-a-dozen touring companies each with as many bases and campgrounds, about
15 public launches for privately owned boats and off-river based guiding
companies, and all the private homes along the river with their own launch
areas, one would think the river would be anything but tranquil. Guess again.
Anyone with the will and means to make a few small sacrifices can enjoy
blissful tranquility on the Delaware
just about any day of the summer, even on peak holiday weekends.
Timing is usually the key. Starting a run at 9:00am almost
ensures a full two hours of having the river to yourself. Start early and
paddle past the crowded campgrounds still waking up from the previous night’s
revelry. More times than not, the only other folks on the river this early are
fishermen and park rangers. The average start times for most of the people
using the commercial outfitters seem to fall between 11am and 1pm. A short 6
mile run means you will be pulling out at 11am and packing up just as the
crowds begin to muster. Similarly, postponing your put-in time until after
2:00pm can often mean the crowds are 30-60 minutes ahead of you. Since kayaks
and canoes are much faster than river rafts, expect to pass a few of these
along the way. Unless the rafts are full of noisy partiers, once you pass them
you tend to forget they are even behind you, after all, you are facing
downstream.
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| Rachel Waters from Waymart, PA kayaks frequently on the river |
Location is also another important factor. The bulk of the
rapids fall between Narrowsburg and Pond Eddy. In fact the elevation change in
the 26 miles from Narrowsburg to Pond Eddy is 160 feet, the bulk of it
occurring in the first 10 miles. Under the right conditions a paddler at the
head of a rapids section can look at another boat only a few hundred feet
downstream and actually get a sense of feeling higher than the boat in front.
While this area does remain wildly popular, a greater number of starting points
are 12 miles south of Narrowsburg, past, what is arguably, the best section of
the river.
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Pick up a map from the National Park Service before your trip. A number of outfitters offer
kayaks, canoes, and rafts for rental. http://www.nps.gov/upde/planyourvisit/boatrentals.htm
If you are venturing on your own, be sure to plan accordingly and check the river
conditions on the hotline: 845-252-7100 |
The Ten Mile River launch is one of the best places to start a trip down river. It is an easy launch with lots of room for unloading and it is fairly calm, so getting into the water is a breeze. Additionally, directly across the river lie a small set of riffles that can be reached by paddling upstream just a little ways. This is a good place for a novice to give it a try. If you are a first-timer, try the riffles. If it proves to not be for you, paddle back to the shore and it is an easy out. If you continue downstream you will encounter more rapids, each set getting slightly more difficult until reaching the Zane Grey launch in Lackawaxen. Also along this section are some great rock formations that are perfect for a picnic, sunning, or swimming. Between the Kunkeli Rapids and the Zane Grey launch, Minisink Falls drops to the river from the left. You can explore the falls if you can park your boat and if you are willing to make the short trek up to the falls via the tunnel under the highway.
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To get up close and personal with Minisink Falls
means getting out of your boat and venturing through
a concrete conduit |
Below Lackawaxen, Cedar Rapids, Stairway Rapids, and Mongaup Rapids also offer some fun. Even these rapids are definitely worth hitting, tacking them on from a launch at Ten Mile means a very long day on the water. Additionally, they are spaced a good distance apart from each other, so there are some monotonous stretches of river, especially at Pond Eddy, in this area. Likewise, the further south you go towards Matamoras, the busier the river gets. For whatever reasons, proportionally more paddlers tend to tackle the Pond Eddy to Matamoras section than they do points further north.
No matter where you paddle, wildlife sightings are common.
Mallard Ducks, Canada Geese, and Common Mergansers
can be spotted with little effort. Great Blue Herons and Bald Eagles are almost
as common. Aquatic mammals such as Beaver, Otter, and Muskrat are less commonly
seen, but no stranger to the river by any means. Similarly, non-aquatic birds
such as Tanagers, Blackbirds, Waxwings, and Swallows can all be seen perching
along the banks.
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Mother Mallard and her ducklings. The Upper Delaware is a great location
for bird watching either in a boat or from the banks |
The historians and geologists can also find plenty of things
to spark their curiosity along this section of river. Rock formations carved
out by eons of rushing water can be explored up and down the banks. Several
waterfalls can be seen from the river here as well, most cascading down craggy
cliffs from some unknown source far above the river. Old rock quarries dot the
landscape. Long abandoned, only piles of rock tailings are left to tell where
they once were. These quarries served to provide Bluestone a growing country
from the colonial period through the 1930s. A few are still in operation today,
but operate on a very large capacity within eyesight of the river. It may be a
wild and scenic river now, but at one time this was a highway on industry.
Rafts of felled timber floated down this river well into the mid 20th
century and along the shores canal boats hauled tons of Anthracite Coal from Scranton to the markets in New York. Remnants of the canal system can
still be seen below Lackawaxen where John Roebling was commissioned to build an
aqueduct to alleviate canal traffic that crossed over the river (see photo above.) Now a bridge
for vehicles, Roebling’s aqueduct still stands today as the oldest suspension
bridge in the country. The aqueduct was built just a few hundred yards
downstream from the Minisink Ford, a natural low water section in the river,
where, two-and-a-half years after Washington
made his famous crossing 150 miles downstream, another lesser known figure of
the Revolutionary War made his own crossing. Here, in 1779, Joseph Brant, a Mohawk,
lead a mixed force of Loyalist militiamen and Iroquois warriors across the
river after decisively defeating a contingent of New York militia on the hills just outside
of Lackawaxen. History, it seems, is not without a sense of irony. The site of Washington’s crossing is managed by state agencies in Pennsylvania and New
Jersey. While it is a National Landmark, this
designation is generally considered lesser in precedence than a National River
since a landmark may be established by the Secretary of the Interior, whereas a
National Scenic and Wild
River can only be
established by the President or Congress and is managed by the National Park
Service.
Please check out these National Park Service webpages prior to your adventure.
