Floating the Middle Delaware: May 1999

Text: Tony Pisarra

This was my first trip with my regular paddling partner Chris (and his pooch Otis) on the Middle Delaware River.

The Delaware Water Gap Nat'l Recreation Area preserves 40 miles of the middle Delaware River and almost 70,000 acres of land along the river's New Jersey and Pennsylvania shores.

At the south end of the park (and the terminus of most paddling trips), the river cuts eastward through a scenic water gap in the Appalachian Mountains. The park includes numerous scenic backcountry camp sites on the river's banks and many islands.

There is no shuttle parking at the first literal access point in the preserved area of the river, so we put in at Kittatiny Canoes, a commercial campground and canoe rental service in Matamoros, PA just south of the NY State line.

This made for a 3 1/2 day 35 mile paddle to our take out at the Kittatinny Visitor Center just above the Delaware Water Gap.

As per usual I paddled my trusty, homebuilt Cape Charles 18, touring kayak.

Chris and Otis rode in Chris's homebuilt Freedom 17 woodstrip canoe.

This was Chris's second extended trip in the Freedom and the first since he completely finished it out. It is a damn pretty boat, and this is probably the first trip on which his boat was shinier than mine.

Day 1: Matamoros PA To Minisink Island

It was about a 4 1/2 hour drive to meet Chris at the take-out where he dropped his truck for the last leg of the shuttle. He had spent the night camped at our starting point in Matamoros, PA just south of the NY state line.

It was an hour long ride on the back roads north to Matamoros. I parked my truck in a paid spot at the campground, and we set out in the mid afternoon for a quick paddle to our first site at Minisink Island about 5 miles on.

It was a nice ride with a single class II rift about two miles into the paddle. The water was otherwise drafting awfully shallow (which guidebooks and online accounts suggested might be the case), and in a couple of places we needed to take a good read on the channel in order to avoid bottoming out on the gravel bars.

Day 2: Minisink Island To Tom's Creek

Stellar late spring weather.

Only downside was that, as already noted, the river was running exceptionally low (particularly for May) and there were several sections where kayak eating gravel skiffles covered the river bank to bank.

I made the dead wrong call on one channel and literally had to get out of my boat in the middle of the river and man haul my kayak through about twenty yards of ankle deep water. Chris, having made the right call, was of course wildly amused at this spectacle.

Despite that, we were enjoying our paddle enough to pass up a couple of early sites only to discover, to our chagrin, that the good weather had brought out a decent number of folks who occupied the next several sites on the PA shore.

As such we were happy to find the last of the Tom's Creek sites open, if unfortunately proximate to a model air park that operated until literal last light (the planes occasionally darting over the river were amusing for about the first hour).

Day 3: Tom's Creek - To Mystery Island

Started out quite chilly in the am but warmed up by afternoon.

Funny moment as we were loading our boats. An avid canoist happened by. He was greatly taken with Chris's boat and plied him with leaflets regarding upcoming paddles and competitions. However, as a kayaker I literally did not exist to him.

Nice lazy section of the river with a good channel.

Decided our planned campsite was a foul, recently washed over non-starter and pressed on -- despite recent experience -- to see if we could find something better.

We did, a truly sweet little, island spot overlooking a deep swimming pool with two nice sized clearings.

Day 4: Mystery Island To Kittatinny Point Visitor Center

The day started sunny (and breezy) but developed into somewhat of an overcast which was good, because my face was in great danger of falling off from all the sun to this point.

Extremely gusty through the Walpack Bend. This just meant a little more work for me in the kayak but was a genuine struggle for Chris in the canoe. Stopped for lunch and literally had to change sides of the river to get out of the wind.

The Sambo & Mary Rift below the bend consists of a nice stretch of class 1 and 2 rapids. Nothing too major but a little bit of work in the current low water level conditions as there is a lot to hit.

The river below Smithfield Beach was something of a disappointment. The NJ bank is fairly developed with commercial fishing camps. The anglers were also extremely active leading to classic vertical-horizontal use conflicts when they cast their lines across the only open channel.

Then the last three miles are just plain spooky as the river passes through the ruins of bridge and a series of rifts before passing under the interstate to spit you out at Kittatinny Point just above the Water Gap.

All in all a very nice trip and one we are likely to repeat.

 

Curious Little Gallery

Images © 1999 Chris Carroll

 

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