I had the following happen on a 3-day early Spring trip on the Delaware, in that section designated as a National Wild and Scenic River, the last three days in April a few years ago. It was a dreamy trip in extreme slow motion. My buddy Alan in his Chinook, I in his found-abandoned-and-rehabilitated 30+-year-old aluminum Aeorcraft, a Vietnam-era canoe with faded stars on the port side and stripes on the starbord. By the peeling PA Fish Commision decals we assume the boat had done this trip more times than we'd had hot meals. <snip>We drifted down through the curve that separates Matamoras, PA and Port Jervis on the N.Y. side, then at the turn N.J. is across the river, the High Point obelisk monument above us. There began the shoreline we'd see for the next three days, mostly farm fields, one old road on each side, the occasional house, a boat landing, untouched woods. Soon the first islands came up, and with them the many fisherman in their little flat-bottomed boats or wading from the shore. They were out in numbers, as a matter of fact I hit shad festival traffic on the way up there from Washington's Crossing north, thousands of people in the New Hope-Lambertville as well as Easton, PA in full-tilt shad mania. We'd pass them, mostly silently, all along the way. I was happy to be in the canoe, giving my muscles a chance to get acquainted again with the motions of the strokes, while my brain drained of everything except how to do them in the proper way. There was plenty of room, as the Delaware here is as wide as a six-lane highway, and we were the only paddlers out, being so early in the season. Rapids in this stretch of river were only class I or I+, which is like driving over a railroad track, no worry at all, especially in the weighty '65 Eldorado I was in with all of the camping gear, I felt like nothing could do me any harm. There wasn't much to think about, just where we were and what was around us. After an hour or so we had become separated, Alan falling back in the kayak to drift and explore, as would be his pattern. I reached the tiny town of Milford, PA, fishermen everywhere in their little boats. Just as I approached the ramp, I was in the middle of the river, I saw two old gents standing on either side of a trailered boat being backed down by a little Chevy pickup truck. Suddenly it lurched and was buried in water to the wheel wells, the boat shot backwards and floated towards me. I thought it was cabled to a winch, as I'd expected, but the two old guys stood there with their arms outstretched and quizzical expressions as their boat drifted towards me and caught the current. The driver popped his head out, he must've been ten years older than his pals, and said through uncertain dentures, "Hey, I thought you fellas had the boat !". I laughed so hard, told them that was elegant, turned around, as none of their fellow fishermen were even stirring to help, paddled over to catch the bowline, lashed it to the thwart next to me and brought it in back in to them, saying, "Now, the law of the river is 'finder's keepers', right ? I've always wanted one of these...Either that or a helluva towing charge...". The elder driver climbed aboard frowning, instead of thanking me said, "Hey, look at all this water back here !", at which we all laughed even harder. Then he did thank me, said I should come have dinner with them, as it was venison. I told him they were talking to the wrong guy as I'm a vegetarian and went on my way. <snip> The trip was also, at the end of the third day, capped off by one of those incredibly stupid and funny moments that nobody saw, saving embarassment for me, but that's a story for another topic and another day. Happy paddling, ~~Paul H., Burlington, N.J. _____________________________________________ NetZero - Defenders of the Free World Click here for FREE Internet Access and Email http://www.netzero.net/download/index.html *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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