Basic Information
Date of Adventure: 08/28/2020
Distance: 10 miles – 12 miles
Approximate trip time: 5 hours
Location: Port Jervis, NY – The Delaware River
History
The Delaware River is one of the nineteen “Great Water.” It feeds into the Atlantic Ocean near Cape May in New Jersey and Cape Henlopen in Delaware. It is 388 miles long.
It spans across the states of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. It provides drinking water to more than 17 million people. It is known for its abundant wildlife, including bald eagles, great blue herons, owls, bobcats, beavers, wild turkeys, mink, muskrat, white-tailed deer, and otters. It also supports more than 60 fish species.
It is named after an English nobleman and Virginia colony’s first royal governor, Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, who defended the colony during the First Anglo-Powhatan War that lasted from 1610 – 1614.
Before the arrival of the European colonists, the Delaware River was inhabited by the Native American Lenape people who called the river “Lenapewihittuk” or Lenape River, which means the largest river in this part of the country.
Our Impressions
We wanted to try something different other than our normal hiking and beach adventures and decided to try a rowing experience. I did a Google search for rafting and canoeing on the Delaware River and Port Jervis. I found many agencies that rent rafts and canoes. I decided to go with the Silver Canoe & Whitewater Rafting, which ended up being a very good choice. We were happy campers with their services. I booked our tickets and off we went on our adventure at the scheduled date.
We arrived to the main office parking lot where a bus took us to the canoe/raft departure point at Pond Eddy. According to the company website, the trip takes about 5 hours and spans a distance of 10 miles. It finishes at Port Jervis or, if the time permits, you can add an extra 2 miles downstream and arrive back to the main office. This was pretty accurate, in our case. It allowed us to row at an easy steady pace and take many dips in the river. We did not do too much relaxing though aside from when we hit rapid waters, which pulled our canoe downstream without much effort on our part. Even though you won’t be jumping or climbing up any hills, the upper body workout is pretty intense so be prepared to feel it in your arms, shoulders, and back muscles in the next couple of days.
