APRIL PROGRAM

My Favorite Local Place to Paddle
By Noel Rickert

On Tuesday, April 6, 2004 The Hunterdon County Canoe Club kicked off a series of programs featuring local favorite places. Most HCCC members paddle more locally than in far away places. Those far away places do make for interesting program topics, no doubt. Typically, however, paddlers who don’t paddle locally don’t paddle much. This series is a response to the following premises. 1) Most HCCC members don’t paddle as much as they would like. 2) There are many underutilized paddling locations close to home.

At the April meeting, Noel Rickert presented an introduction to a paddling destination close to his home in Lambertville NJ. The Lambertville "wing dam" is located roughly a mile downstream from the Lambertville-New Hope Bridge on the Delaware River. A stone and concrete structure restrains over three quarters of the wide river. It was built on the site of a natural rock ledge know as Well’s Falls. The Delaware flows through a central channel several hundred feet wide. The irregular rock ledges below the wing dam form a Class II white water rapid that is boatable even at low summer levels. Lambertville is well known to paddling instructors and safety and rescue trainers as an attractive practice area. It is a superb practice area for any river paddlers. There are a variety of surfable waves and holes scattered about the rapid. Many are friendly to open boats as well as kayaks. For those who wish to improve their river running skills eddies frequent the sides of strong current. Many paddlers develop boat control and power by working on attainment. "Attainment" is upstream movement on the river. Some people are able to attain the entire rapid at a moderate summer level. Among those who practice attainment are canoe polers. Poling is exactly what it sounds like, namely standing in a canoe, pushing it around with a twelve foot long pole. It’s an impressive thing to see. The technique is very well suited to shallow rapids. Paddlers who spend a little time at the wing dam will learn some standard attainment routes. It is intriguing how different various moves feel from one day to the next, mostly depending on the river level. Some attainments are easier at higher levels others when the flow is reduced. When asked whether they find going to the same place often to be boring local paddlers reply something to the effect that the River is never the same and it’s always interesting.

Getting in and out of the wing dam is relatively easy. There is an access in Lambertville at the Sewer Authority (turn south off Bridge St. into the Lambertville Station parking area, and swing around to the left of the Inn). Most people paddle down to the rapid from there and paddle back up when they are done. Those who cannot paddle right back up through the rapid can lift over the dam on either side. There is also an access another mile below the wing dam. A group could position a shuttle vehicle there and run down after playing in the rapid.

In past years a group of HCCC members has met fairly regularly on Wednesday evenings to play around for a few hours. Last year the river levels did not permit that. Assuming the levels are more typical this year HCCC President, Noel Rickert expects to reinstitute "wing dam Wednesdays". Look for announcements in late May or early June.

Future local favorites may include Round Valley Reservoir, some section of the South Branch Raritan, the Tohickon Creek, other spots on the Delaware, and Spruce Run Reservoir. Suggestions are welcomed.