Just because you have a staycation lined up, it doesn't mean you have to lock yourself in the cloying walls of your house. Get out and camp or kayak... or both! My wife and I took vacation time for the first week of August, strategically timed before the onslaught of craziness that precedes the beginning of the Fall semester at the university I work at. We had some housework in mind, as well as trips to Ikea and Campmor planned. We also had a three-day, two-night river camping trip on our itinerary.
The trip we planned would traverse the part of the Delaware River in the "other" part of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area that we haven't paddled before. That is the section from Milford, PA to Bushkill, PA. We planned to use riverside camping spots defined by the park's official map,
which can be found here. The fact that we live in Delaware Water Gap means we spend much more time on the section from Eshback access to Kittatinny access.
Day One
We awoke at the crack of dawn, all items packed and boats loaded. Just kidding, we arose at 9 AM and began to get our shit together. After coffee. I had gotten most of the gear out and ready in the garage previously, however. We also had our food planned and I mocked up the packing strategy for the two kayaks and the "tugboat" (more on that later). It came down to just packing it all.
We did this trip self-supported, so we left a car at the Bushkill access point and continued north together in the pickup with the kayaks. The trip from home to the Milford access point is about 30 minutes, so we began the unload sometime after 3:00 PM after screwing around all day. One element of time that gets underestimated or beguiling is the portage of people and kayaks along the river to accomplish these things.
It was a weekday, so we had the access point to ourselves. This allowed us to unload and drag kayaks, dry bags, cooking gear, some wood, tent, sleeping bags and numerous other things down to the water where we could sprawl all accouterments about willy nilly. This helps in packing, trust me. We hit the water around 3:45 PM.
Loading the boats was smooth enough, as we had just done an overnight river trip the week before along with my brother. The presence of the tugboat was a key factor. The lovingly-deemed "tugboat" is really a product called the Kayak Kaddy available from a
sports outfitting company. See the image below for reference.
The first duty of the tugboat was to carry cold food. I'd need to stuff a cooler bag inside. You can use a product like the Icemule dry bags, but we ended up trying to find a solution the day before, in our typical fashion of last-minute. I found a good 'ol 16-can Coleman cooler bag at the local hunting and fishing outfitter. It worked because I could remove the rigid inside bucket and stuff it through the hatch in the tugboat. Once inside, I began to stuff kabobs, hot dogs, a 64 ounce block of frozen chili, a bottle of dijon, a 12-pack caddy of eggs, a bag of nine hard boiled eggs and two freezer packs in before zipping it up and stuffing it into the rear (rounded part) of the tugboat.
Once jammed rearward, it extended just a smidgen past the lip of the hatch. Most impressive. The rest of the space was used for cooking gear and various other items. I don't remember precisely, but items such as a folding bow saw, coffee peculator and grill spatula and tongs. Top it off with whatever else miscellany and the tugboat is highly effective.
We paddled about five miles during this first afternoon, coasting under the bridge you see above that carries route 206 from New Jersey into Pennsylvania. This section of the river is quite calm, devoid of rapids or very shallow sections. We were heading for Namanock Island to camp. The map listed four sites available for camping, but it plunged the indicator unreliably smack in the middle of the island. We decided to travel the eastern side of the island in order to find at least one site there. We did find one site - it had no shore, a steep embankment and overgrown vegetation and essentially no view of the river.
If you're camping on the river, you want a view of the river. Another rule is that if you're camping on an island on the river, walk around on foot to scope out other, better sites on the other side of the island. We did just that and found a great spot that would just require us to round the end of the island and paddle upstream for about 50 yards on the other side.
We set up camp, pillaged dead wood, drank wine, cooked kabobs, watched the sun go down over the hills to the West and meditated over the campfire with more wine until bedtime organically fell.
Day Two
We awoke at the crack of dawn. Just kidding, that's a re-occurring joke that will never get funny. I made coffee on the percolator after emerging from the tent around 8:00 AM, and we sipped that while staring at the water and feeling the heat rise for a few hours. We dug into the hard-boiled eggs for breakfast, standing around the site eating salt and peppered eggs. We packed intermittently until we hit that point of no return, where you go into full bustle. Everything jettisoned down the bank!
We probably shoved off around 11:00 AM. The daylight in the photo above backs up that theory. Had we known that the day's trip would be quite a bit longer than expected, we would have certainly busted a move earlier. In the end, we spent a long, hot and humid time on the river during the hottest part of the day. Part of that trip was traveling through Dingman's Ferry and the toll-bridge of its namesake.
The Dingman's Ferry bridge is a quirky toll-bridge with a wooden slat surface. It's quite unique to paddle under while vehicles consisting of several thousand pounds of metal drive across, rattling the boards above your head. We took a break at the Dingman's access point just after the bridge and refilled our water and wolfed down snacks under a tree while the sun blazed.
Our next target camping spot was ideally at the Jerry Lees sites, which were 7-8 miles downriver. We scouted the Hornbecks sites anyway, since several hours of paddling in the midday heat was a sweaty endeavor. I was looking for a good site with a decent swimming spot down below. The Hornbecks sites didn't work out. While spacious enough, not all had a good view of the river and the swim spots were murky at best. We continued on without much deliberation. Camping there would make for a longer trip for day three anyway.
We'd essentially pinned ourselves to the Jerry Lees sites. According to the map, those were a few miles downriver, so we kept our eyes peeled on the western shore, even through some rapids that were more frequently appearing. Hot, sweaty and tired, we increasingly just wanted to make camp for the day. It was late afternoon at this point. After a few sections of rapids, we came across the non-mistakable signs of a campsite on the shore. This was about right for the location of the Jerry Lees sites. We struck shore and investigated, but it appeared like these sites were decommissioned. No fire pit, no signage. It became apparent later on that the map wasn't updated. I took a dunk anyway, since I had accumulated several hours of sunlight and sweat and felt like this could possibly be the last chance until I got home.
We moved on. Perhaps the sites were just a bit down the river. We kept this optimism close to heart until we rounded a slight bend and realized with wide eyes that we were at the Eshback access. We were only four miles away from the endpoint. Motivations changed quickly here as we realized we would stake our night's claim in the waters just a few miles upriver from our destination. At least we knew these sites still existed, as we were back on home turf, so to speak.
The swimming is better here anyway! Less foot-sucking mud, and the water had cleared even more after the recent storms. We camped on an island within a mile of our destination at the Bushkill access point. It was roughly 6:30 PM, we knew this was the last stop. Aware that we had a short paddle the next day, we quickly set up camp in the space that was a bit off the river and took our camp chairs and wine down by the river to watch the sun go away another night, The photos above are within this moment, as we sipped wine and watched a few river stragglers slide by on this languid piece of the Delaware. We finished the night again with a campfire and heating up the chili on the camp stove and the brats on the fire, along with watching the fire burn down with whatever wine we had left.
Day Three
It was hardly a day at all. I made coffee again, just to prove we are human, after all, and relaxed at the site while drinking coffee, reading and indulging in that idle chat you have once you get into a good outdoor kick. We packed like reckless fiends and shot our boats out onto the water for the 15 minute paddle to Bushkill access. There was scant time to experience anything here, but I took a few photos nonetheless.
And now we were back to driving. Bushkill to Milford. Back to Bushkill to load the boats and gear. Back to our real home. Home, but not before stopping at the deli near the entrance to the recreation area. There was this customary post-camping hunger that we all feel. A little dehydrated, a little sun-crisped, a bit wild-eyed and sleep-deprived. I'll unabashedly admit I picked up a foot long turkey sub to go, which I devoured at home.
Getting home feels a lot better when you get out.
[g]
