Big D yak trip...holy crap...

[Skunk City]

Some of you guys may know from me posting on here, but from Friday night-Tuesday morning, me and 3 of my buddies did a kayak float trip from Barryville NY to Bushkill PA. We originally planned on doing more distance, but heavy rains and flood warnings cut us down to about 60 miles. All of our gear was transported in our own kayaks: tents, water, food, fishing gear, etc.

Friday after work while trailering the kayaks out to Barryville, we hit a nasty downpour that we hoped would not affect the river too much. Man were we wrong lol. Though the USGS water tables showed the river being slow and low all week, the storm turned the Big D into the Congo during rainy season. Woke up Saturday morning to a raging river of chocolate milk. After loading all our gear up, we started our journey. Within 5 minutes, my buddy dumped his kayak in some rapids. Not good. The 3 of us swarmed over to him, managed to grab him, his yak and his gear and got him to shore. He was OK, but about 3 hours later, another serious rapid tossed my other buddy off his yak. We also managed to help him out, but he did lose some gear, including a box full of topwaters. Pretty scary shit!

Sunday morning we woke up to Police airboats and a dive team 5 FEET from our campsite. After talking to them, we were alerted that a rafter had gone missing the day before and a report had his body bobbing up near our kayaks. Turns out we found the guys empty raft the day before and towed it back to the rental place. Very surreal.

By mid Sunday and Monday, the river had slowed down a bit, but the chocolate milk stayed. As you can imagine, fishing was near impossible with the conditions. We fished hard in the areas we could, but not one fish was caught. Besides the river conditions itself, everything else about the trip was AWESOME. Weather and temperature were perfect, water temps ranged from 68-71 degrees. Gorgeous views, many Bald Eagles, some cliff jumping and swimming in calm areas to cool down. Sunday night we set up camp on a small island and enjoyed the meteor showers that peaked that night, amazing. Monday night we had a pack of Coyotes howling very close to us. A radar check at 5am Tuesday morning showed massive storms and flood warnings, so we pulled the plug early and landed near Bushkill as opposed to our original takeout point of Smithfield Beach.

No fish pics, but I did tag lots of fishy areas to come back to when conditions are better. VERY happy we all made it back in one piece given the conditions we were greeted with. GREAT times with GREAT friends, gained a ton of experience under my belt with some awesome memories.

[Fish n Jeep]

Glad to see you turned a potentially miserable experience into an adventure, Rob. You'll catch them next time.

[Jigman13]

Damn... That's wild. I just read that a second guy went missing on the Big D this week, too. Glad you and your friends went somewhat unscathed. Looks like a good time. Great pics, too!

[Skunk City]

Here's a short GoPro vid of what were some "easier" rapids compared to what we went through on Saturday.

http://youtu.be/PW_60quOhJw

[kcritch]

Glad you guys are safe and in one piece. Bummer about the weather/conditions/flooding...Sorry it didn't work out better for you guys on that front. However, I'm sure this is something you will never forget and will be talking about forever....and after a short while all that will be left to the story will be the good parts! Welcome Back!

[FASTEDDIE29]

Glad you guys made it back in full form. Awesome pics and report. Delaware claims alot of people. Respect the river!!!

[msgdan]

Great report of an adventure for sure. The added weight without being positioned perfect in a kayak will change the center of balance a great deal. And without the perfect balance in not perfect conditions could easily result in the kayaks going over. Add in, not a ton of experience in fast water, and I would say that you guys did great with only a couple mishaps.

Nice trip !!

Danny V

[jimmythegreek]

def glad to hear u guys r good and made it out alright, the river is a beast when it wants to be. Me and eddie were fishin the contest sat night talkin about u guys after we heard the weather forecast, even tho theres no fish its a awesome place to boat and just camp and sitesee, was worth that alone

[basspilot]

Cool report man looked like an exciting trip. When I heard a bunch of kayakers came across a body in the D I thought it was you guys who found it kinda surreal. New yak too it looks like. Which one did you pick up?

[AndyS]

.........all I can say is WOW !!!!