you can never step into the same river twice

I have always been drawn to the Delaware. Its gentle, shallow currents were pastoral and the idyllic setting of its course was nirvana for this city boy. Crossing over the rickety Dingman's Ferry bridge going to Scout camp, the river was the barrier between New Jersey and the rest of the world. At first chance I began to canoe it. There was a 5 day trek from Hancock, NY to Port Jervis with the scouts. During that particular trip I met two sisters vacationing on the river with their parents and I did a lot of sleeping under the canoe....well.. wait...that's another blog. When I moved to Lambertville I went to a canoe rental place in Point Pleasant, PA. I bought a surplus canoe and had the fellow walk it down to the river so I could paddle it home ... alone.

Coming from Harrison, bounded on three sides by the oily Passaic River, the nurturing and healing Delaware was especially beautiful. SInce I've been helping haul shad I've now seen its bounty, its sustaining providence. But, over the past 20 years of living near it I have seen its angry side. It flooded severely twice over the past 5 years. Whole sections of Lambertville were underwater. I've seen emergency crews clamoring to the banks to fret over ice floes or debris that crashes into the bridge pylons. I've seen how the river changes daily, even hourly. The way the wind kicks up whitecaps or the way the sun hits water and the bridge and the trees, or the way a large tree flowing ominously with the currents gives everyone pause, makes me realize that you could sit and ponder this beauty without ever seeing a rerun.

We did have a thunderstorm on Saturday night, but there wasn't a lot of rain. There was barely anything in the boat that needed to be bailed out. Still, the river rose over a foot and the nets had to be moved up on the concrete slab of the point twice on Sunday and yesterday afternoon to prevent them from floating away. Perhaps they released some water from the reservoirs in upstate New York that caused this drastic rise. They had much more rain up there than we did. It is interesting that something hundreds of miles away could impact our lives.

We did not go out last night. The river was racing and filled with trees and they would have just torn up the nets. So, we spent the evening putting the nets on saw horses to straighten them out for they got all tangled up when they were moved quickly. Steve and Charlie mended whatever holes they found. I never put on waders, though I wished I had. There was a chill in the air and as usual I was wearing running shorts. There was talk about taking off some of the 250 yards, but they figured the river would drop as quickly as it rose and today we could go out with the normal amount.

Tim had taken off on Friday night and wasn't there as part of the crew. He said it was "date night" and he took his wife to the Landing. That's a restaurant just across the river from the point and you can sit at tables overlooking the river. He said he spent half the time there watching us work on the island.

thanks for reading...hopefully we'll go out today. There was a fellow who was looking for catfish and he was disappointed that we didn't go out last night. Maybe tonight.
cheers,
greg