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.

[g]

The "passed out after work" Ride

Work all day, come home, pass out on the couch. I can't figure out my energy level arc, but it's definitely lowest between 2 and 7PM. It's been like this for at least ten years. It wreaks havoc with work and personal life. I lose several hours of productive nine-to-fiver work, then get home, put my bike shorts on and go full REM on the couch for an hour.

During other times of this is fatal for doing anything healthy after work. I was determined to do something tonight, so I got my shit together and headed out to the McDade trail at 7:40 PM. Yawning the entire drive, I was content with going from the Riverview trailhead to the park headquarters and back. A little over four miles round trip but with 400 feet of ascent. The Google Maps link is here, and here's an embedded version below.



I finished the ride after sundown and had to toss the bike on the tailgate of the truck and jump in immediately due to clouds of mosquitoes scoping out my truck. Yes, they are back folks. We have arrived.

And now, while I feel like I have more energy than I've had all day, I have to convince myself I have some kind of "normal" circadian rhythm and attempt to get to sleep by midnight. If only to bank more energy for more rides or hikes, that is! Take that, normal life! Ah, I'm trying.

[gjn]

Short hiking the "Home Loop"

Jump out through the garage door, walk a few minutes on some asphalt and land on the Appalachian Trail and take it from there. It's great to live in a spot where I can make that happen, and that's exactly what Tara and I did today after shooting out of work early to take a quick hike in the March 60-degree weather.

It's just under 3 miles door-to-door, passing Lenape lake (a rather small pond, really) after hopping on the trail at Mountain Road and taking you up along the Appalachian Trail in its southern direction. You follow the AT for a short distance, overlooking the Delaware River and Route 80 as they both squeeze through the Delaware Water Gap to your left. Below are a few photos from that section.

After a short walk, you bear right at a junction that has you pass a swampy area on your left. You are heading toward Caledonia Creek, and you make a right turn at the next junction, essentially when you hear the creek just nearby. You walk a bit more downhill, take a left at the next junction and shortly after duck off a side trail on the left that places you face-to-face with Diana's Bath, loosely placed as a series of small waterfalls and pools. It's a cozy spot, surrounded by Rhododendrons and the sound of the creek rolling over rocks and down long slabs of rock.

It took us about and hour today to make the loop, and that's with a meandering pace. Just get outside, the season is here, so enjoy. No longer are we stuck with darkness upon getting home from our day jobs, and there is more adventure than any other time of the year to digest ahead of us before we get our next dose of Winter.

[gjn]

Game-lands Detour

I found myself driving back-roads, bumpy pavement, twisting, while I stole quick glances with a ducked head through my passenger window. I was trying to follow the mountain range to ensure this road was going where I'd theorized it was traveling. We were dipping towards sunset, and I was trying to find an alternate trailhead, come hell or high mountain.

The road to the typical trailhead at State Gamelands 38, Pennsylvania was closed. My twenty minute drive was rendered fruitless, but I was determined to get on the trail system somehow, or drive around trying. I knew Hypsie Gap Road ran at the border of the game-lands, I'd found myself at the dirt track and metal gate intersection of the two several times in the past, so that was my waypoint.

A road isn't really a waypoint, but a small road in the mountains is a more fairly precise location than you'd think. Lined road turned into unlined roads, and that turned into gravel strewn surface and those finally turned into heavily pot-holed gravel roads begging for high-clearance 4x4s.

Once into the mountains on Hypsie Gap Road, I was on the lookout for the gated access roads that were really just dirt trails I'd seen in the past while mountain biking the game-lands. I began to plow into pot-holes the size of hot tubs and, at one point, drifted sideways out of the trajectory in my Tacoma pickup.

I passed a potential gated trail while glancing at the Google maps on my windshield-mounted phone and doubled back. With failing sunlight, this was going to be my quick excursion on my bike just to recon the location affirmatively. Grass Lake, in and out at a total clip of about two miles.

I threw the keys, phone and the light in my pack just in case and set off while I eyed an old Toyota sedan grind by, dispelling the idea that you needed a 4x4 to traverse this road in the first place. It was chilly at this point, and I was running short sleeves, so I skirted the lake and turned back at an intersection, but not after I defined where I was.

I snagged a few photos while the light was nice during the waning sunlight and pedaled back to the truck. I grabbed a beer out of the weathered cooler and cracked the aluminum top open while I wondered at the new summer arriving shortly, prefaced by the 60-degree weather we have already been enjoying.

I spaced my place for a while as I thought about how the mad rush had subsided and I'd have to carefully pick my way through pot-holed roadways before I joined the regular world again, and I felt pretty damn peaceful.

[gjn]

The trail map for my ride is located here.