THE
HUNTERDON COUNTY NEWS |
TITLE: REVIEW – TUBING FOUL RIFT ON THE DELAWARE
DESCRIPTION:
Time: 11:09:00
HUNTERDON COUNTY – With the heat wave coming on it may be time to take the family up to the Delaware River for a day of tubing. This past weekend the HC NEWS headed out to Belvidere for a day of tubing on the Delaware.
First you have to get tubes for the adventure, its not a bad thing to buy as they double as fun in the snow as well as just flopping around in the pool. If you cross the Belvidere Bridge, about a half hour from most parts of northern Hunterdon, you can park at the Riverton Hotel right on the pennsy border to get in the water. On the way up to Belvidere there is a little bar called the hutch, make a left on Hutchinson road off of 519 to get there, where you can leave one car if you go in and spend a little money so the proprietor doesn’t growl. At the Riverton Hotel you can dump in just above the bridge in a little tributary that is easy to get started in. Yes it says private property, but it’s a campground and no one is the wiser.
Now one concern is a little urban legend called Foul Rift – here is what one website says – http://www.njskylands.com/odcanoedel.htm
If you look at a map of Warren County south of the Delaware Water Gap, you might conclude that there is an easy trip from Belvidere to Phillipsburg. It certainly looks like a simple thing to do, except for the two four-letter words you can see on a map: Foul Rift. From Belvidere, just before the gigantic concrete cooling towers of the coal furnaces of the Metropolitan Edison power plant, you come to Foul Rift, perfectly named as one of the most severe rapids on the Delaware. Beginning canoeists should avoid this area all together. The river drops 22 feet in one-half mile. There is no developed portage around the rapids, and it is a task even during moderate river levels for canoeists to beach on the rocks on the New Jersey side, then carry their canoes along the sand bars and ledges to calmer water. The Recreation Map published by the Delaware River Basin Commission offers the following advice for canoeists: "Foul Rift deserves a special word of caution. None but the most experienced and best equipped boater should venture into this area. The only assurance of safe passage is to portage around the entire area or to lower the unmanned boat by line."
In a canoe is may be a little dicey with rolling waves, but on a tube it is nothing but pure fun. We had to 6th graders with us and they didn’t blink. The nice thing is you get in the rapids 15 minutes into the ride so it is fun for all, a big key is to hug the pennsy bank of the river for a faster ride, if you do stay left it will whip you right down to the electric factory, fun fun fun. When you do round the bend at the factory go quick to the jersey side, there are to intakes for the factory that warn you to stay away or get sucked to the screen.
For a little while it’s a slow relaxing float and then it revs up again. This time stay near the jersey side and you will get a fast ride under the old railroad bridge, this is the fastest part of the trip and was accompanied by great screams of joy. From there it’s a short trip to the get out point. Here’s a little tip – there is a yellow building on the hillside, if you get out on the flat right before that it’s a two minute walk to the parking lot as the hutch has a bit of a steep hill if you get out there.
Overall this is a fun trip, it takes 2 hours and fifteen minutes, and is a very nice way to spend an afternoon. As for danger aspects we did not bring life preservers and never really thought about it. The Foul Rift Legend did appear to be just slightly overrated.