Delaware River Camping in the Kayaks

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.

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Quick Ride to a Beer

Just a quick ride on my home trail and a beer on the patio near sunset.

Trexler Nature Preserve MTB 6/30/2016

Sometimes, you are motivated by curiosity and adventure, and sometimes, you are motivated by the aforementioned plus a deadline. Trexler has been a location on my radar for some time now, renown for its punchy singletrack and a particular roller coaster ride of a trail deemed "Kill Dozer". Kill Dozer was recently assigned to doom, by way of natural reassignment of the landscape, so I knew I needed to ride it before July.

I did. I rode it. Part of it. I couldn't get the links together to ride the entire thing, despite consulting GPS and trail maps. The way to the top of Kill Dozer was just obscured and obliterated except for those in the know. There was some new alternate route to reach the top of the celebrated trail.

Firstly, it was a beautiful drive to the trailhead through parts unknown to me through the greater Lehigh Valley area of Pennsylvania. We're talking rolling hills and farmlands with distant vistas of Appalachian mountain ranges. I rolled along through hilly rural roads and tiny-town intersections and almost got lost in some slightly decaying small town that nevertheless had a weird integral draw on my psyche.

Once that was all in my rearview mirror, I rumbled onto the access road to the trailhead. The trailhead itself unveiled itself as a hot, dusty, baking bit of parking lot. I got my shit together, oriented myself and hit the trail with my ever-so-luddite paper map and notes in my pocket.

It's not always super fun when you go your own way on a new trail system, but I had fun here. I could get into the swoopy and twisting singletrack for nice sections before having to halt and check my location. There are some great sections not far from the trailhead that have pump track-like elements as well as skinnies to ride. Certainly sessionable if you want to get some skills work in.

Killdozer, the part of it that I managed to ride, was as advertised. It was a toboggan ride that begged for balance and carving huge berms. Without knowing the course, I couldn't get all the lines right, but it was a blast. Big dips that lead into hearty smooth-packed banked turns were plentiful. We can only hope that this trail survives despite the park's decisions on foliage changes.

Trexler Preserve is a nice trail system, but we'll have to see what comes of the changes that are undergoing. Unfortunately, I made the trip there only after the trail system was irrevocably changed already. I'll post my wandering, discovering, halting GPS map below. I'll try to get back there sometime soon, after the literal dust settles after the park changes.

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Hump Day Kayak, June 29th

Sometimes, you just have to slam the door on work life and get the boats loaded up into the truck and do an evening paddle. Thwart all the "work night" warnings, and throw two boats on the truck and do a short float on the river to clear your mind.

We have this go-to trip, which is Eshback to Bushkill. Four miles. Float more than paddle. Drink a few beers. The river is glass at this time in the evening. The wildlife comes out to play. We saw two groups of deer playing and drinking at the water's edge, as well as a bald eagle coast across the river and roost in a tree on a high branch above the shore. There are ducks and beaver, doing their twilight thing, as we are. They are smart, in their own tiny brain reasoning.

We stare at computers, go to meetings, talk shop and then you float your boat on the river and you get dangerously close to figuring out that something here doesn't matter. I mean, just a little close, but you know it just brings you back to the mean. Some kind of math that's ingrained in our being. Something like how the animals of the forest plug their day away just surviving, but come to exalt at the evening light, and just enjoy that cool, calm evening.

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Camelback MTB Pushed a Few More Miles

There is a lot of stuff to ride at Camelback/SG38. You can put down some serious miles. I've been riding a fairly short loop of sorts, hitting the trails named Three Bridges and Secret. I was then meandering a bit through part of Birches and looping back to the trailhead. That was equating to something around six miles of rolling about the top of the mountain.

The best seat is at the bar

However, there are other "deer paths" that I haven't been hitting this year so far. You can rack up several miles on these sections as they wander from one jeep road to the next through varying terrain like blueberry bushes, pine tree groves and otherwise root-infested knee-blasters.

These sections are all cardio-intensive. You have to pump those legs. In the case of this ride, I rode about a mile of these singletrack sections before taking the jeep road back to the parking lot.

Lens flare is all the rage, but I really was trying to escape it

There is a bunch more trail than this, and one day maybe I'll post it. In lieu of that here, I'll just post some more trail-related photos and drop the trail map down below as well.

The trail less travelled will get eaten by nature 

Tailgating is where it ends

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Early June Paddle Roundup

The season of Summer has finally hung up its coat and taken a seat in our region of the Northeast. This means more playtime outside, and likely more roundup posts about outdoor adventures in lieu of entries for each trip. That would probably be excruciating to read, anyway.

We hit the Delaware again on two successive weekends at the beginning of this month. Two relatively short jaunts in fine weather on what you could call bourgeois-cruises. OK, just "booze-cruise" works. The definition of which is casually paddling while drinking a can of beer.

Somewhere on the Delaware

At the crack of 1:30 PM on Saturday, June 4th myself and four others (Tara, Scott, Jaime and Eric) set out to paddle the Smithfield to Kittatinny section of the Delaware. Armed with a few beers and subs, we made it our mission to relax. I'd go ahead and even say we had a license to chill, but the cornball levels are already much too high.

This particular segment is 6-7 miles long. The ambiguity exists because I thought it was 6 miles, but my GPS track on this read almost 7 miles. It took us nearly three hours, which isn't that bad considering we stopped for lunch and very casually paddled.

Yes, these boats are secure

In fact, I'd have to say the most strenuous part is jamming five boats onto my truck. I've got it down to a science now... maybe more like a pseudo-science. At this point, a trailer would be actually worth the trouble. I'm thinking of something like a utility trailer that I could fabricate boat cradles and thingamajigs upon.

I will take selfies now and again

Mixed among these photos are evidence from the June 12th trip, whereas we navigated the Delaware from the Eshback access point to the Bushkill disembark. This makes for a good four-mile float where you are implored to not paddle too hard, as you'll knock it out in less than an hour. We had a strong headwind, so there was an impetus to work those shoulder muscles, after all. We packed this one in with a sedan left at Bushkill and jamming five people in the extended cab of my Tacoma to put in at Eshback. And I'd really perfected the sardine arrangement of the kayaks in the truck bed, so the looming threat of a boat trailer was kept at bay for a little bit more for the weekend.

 I've got too many projects as it is, so I can table the trailer discussion for now. And since it's Friday and another weekend is upon us, I'll wrap this up, sneak out of work and go generate some more photos. I'll leave the GPS track below for the Smithfield to Kittatinny trip, for curiosity's sake only, it's not very interesting. And certainly not athletic.

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Big Pocono Hike

This 90-degree heat gets me thinking about getting high. No, not that kind of high. I'm speaking of the altitude kind of high where the temperature is ten degrees cooler and you've got more than a fair chance of a breeze. Big Pocono State Park near Tannsersville, Pennsylvania fills this role perfectly.

We're looking at Delaware Water Gap taking on water

Big Pocono is also just a little bit "around the mountain" from one of my prime mountain biking locations, which I have written about as well, this post being a recent example. There are several miles of hiking (and some biking) trails skirt the mountain top and interconnect here and there occasionally. The trail markings are pretty decent and feature some great views, with several sweet spots.

My wife and I decided to make it a Sunday picnic/hike a few weeks ago. There was a small threat of rain, as you can see in the photo above. A funny note about this photo is that we're actually watching from afar as our house in Delaware Water Gap is getting poured on. You can see the Gap in the center, and our house is a bit to the right. It remained dry in Big Pocono, despite the storm clouds threatening on the three sides of the peninsula.

Scenic vista on Indian Trail

We ended up hiking for about 3 1/4 miles on part of the South Trail and the entirety of Indian Trial, which included the viewpoint from the photo above. It's certainly an easy hike, with parts of Indian Trail being somewhat rocky, but with some great glacial boulder droppings to be seen. The South Trial also features some wonderful viewpoints, as seen below.

South Trail, featuring a view of Delaware Water Gap 

Me, with the 'Gap above my wonderful hairdo 

 Tara looks out over the South

I believe that's Mountain Spring Lake behind me

We did get a few raindrops, and we had a few meager wildlife sightings, whereas you can see an alert chipmunk below, who circled around this tree trunk while we observed him.

I'll post the hiking track below. It's a nice spot to hike and explore, and you're at the top of the Poconos, so it's the best vantage point in the vicinity.

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