Kayaking kickoff with the DWG crew

We had beautiful weather two Sundays ago, and it was time to get the kayaking and paddling season underway. Yeah, you can go when it's colder, but I'm doing this for fun, remember? It was time to get the rig on the truck and give the kayaks a bath. We still had plenty of bare branches out there, but it was hot and sunny enough to get fully crisped by the sun. At least for me, that is.

The homemade boat rack - "the rig"

The kayaks after a bit of a wash

This turned out to be the Summer in the 'gap kickoff meeting of sorts. Among the six of us were some Delaware Water Gap locals as well as an honoree 'gap local visiting for the weekend. We put in at Smithfield beach on the Delaware River and set our destination at the Kittatinny access point in New Jersey. It's a six mile trip and great for an afternoon trip. I'll just throw some photos out at this point.

 Rachele and Scott, left to right

Monica, paddling an excitingly-colored kayak 

Left to right, Jaime and Tara, bumper boats 

From the bow of my boat, watching Rachele and Scott 

As we begin to pass the bridge to Shawnee Island 

Scott, in full manly action 

Jaime and Scott run aground at Kittatinny, the destination 

Ahoy, Kittatinny, the ending point for the paddle session   

This leg of the Delaware is an interesting on several points. Firstly, you paddle past the historic Shawnee Inn, which includes a golf course that extends from the Pennsylvania side of the river onto Shawnee Island. The bridge in the photo above is the link between the two land masses. Shawnee Island is a sizable island, and you can now gawk at the "glamping" sites they now have established on the island. These are bourgeois yurts with electricity for your hairdryers and ground support in the terms of food or something.

The second interesting features are the trestles that remain embedded in the river that once supported an elevated train track. The location of this feature is where the Brodhead Creek empties into the Delaware near the Delaware Water Gap. I have a photo below of a kayak trip last summer.

 Train trestle at the mouth of Brodhead Creek and Delaware River in Delaware Water Gap

The third interesting aspect of this portion of the Delaware is the fact that you pass underneath Interstate 80, possibly one of the most traveled routes in the Northeast Corridor. The river is deep, and the bridge pylons are massive, and you certainly feel an unsettling sense of might over natural matter that was required to put this into place.

Of course, I've had a few beers at this point and have been fried by the sun, so dehydration plays an important part in any kind of psychological evaluation. There was also the fact that we had to save a crew of non-english speaking people from a serious grounding of their rented bass boat on a sand bar.

I suppose I can't leave without putting a few words down on this. We had rounded a soft curve after Shawnee Island and came across an aluminum bass boat with several people onboard and the high -horsepower motor spinning frantically halfway out of the water. We offered a few volleys of help, and realized that, yes, indeed, they needed help. We parked our boats and waded to the bass boat and immediately told them to cut the motor, otherwise somebody would lose a limb. We then instructed them to get off the marooned boat, since that was basic science.

They had missed the channel, essentially. Like really missed it, as the best channel was on the other side of the river and lead-in of this island. We had to basically lift the boat off the rocky sandbar and get in into the most appropriate channel available to get their craft and party to float along. Once we had a free floating status, we bid them adieu, had them jump back on the boat and wished (hoped) them happy trails.

On the 10-yard walk back to shore in waist deep water, I obviously tripped and dunked myself entirely. The water is cold in April, but the sun and temperature where both quite radiant that day, so there wasn't the typical fear of exposure. Hey, no good deed goes unpunished.

This should mark the beginning of a great summer. That's what the planets aligned here or whatever. We kicked this thing off right. We paddled, we talked, we bailed some people out, we went to the Minisink, we got some (too much) sun and we just hung together like brothers from another mother. I'm feeling good about this.

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