Delaware River
Riegelsville, NJ to Kingwood Access below Frenchtown, NJ
by Bob Rancan

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Pretty good crowd, 34 members in 32 boats, 10 canoes, 22 kayaks. Beautiful day, sunny with very slight breeze and a lot less humidity than in previous weeks. 11.8 miles covered without incident. Lots and lots of rough-winged and tree swallows hunting over the quick water, at least one red-tail hawk, several great blue herons, a great egret, a circling pair of Cooper's hawks, 5-6 osprey, including two next to a nest on a power tower, some belted kingfishers, a cormorant and lots of common mergansers, mallards, TVs and Canada Geese. There were basking turtles and Laurie C. even found a small American toad at lunch and when she tried to show me dropped it on my sandwich. (It hopped away.)

The day was not all as idyllic as portrayed above though. Gathering 33 independent paddlers, shuttling 23 cars through revitalized river towns such as Milford and Frenchtown and arriving at the usual take-out to find an army of tubers from the new rental place and a lot filled with cars from the boaters with trailers and the new outfitter in Frenchtown did sap a little energy. We have had multiple cats at home and they can be herded. Everyone did show just enough patience that we got through the chaos. Got the drivers into 4 vehicles and got everyone back to Riegelsville. The paddle was easy!

Thanks to everyone for the cooperation and good spirits. My only rule: keep somewhat together so we could stop at the same lunch spot - didn't work out. Maybe I'll shelve that one in the future.

I won't name everyone but thanks very much to the shuttle drivers: Jeff Heilbraun, Lyn Siegel, Norann Hein, Chris Meyers, Henry Degenhardt and Jim Lyon. And thanks to Laure Cochran for the photos and also to Cathy Boje who posted photos separately.

Bob