I am looking to do a late summer paddle down the wading river in the pine barrens of new jersey. I’ve gotten some valuable intel from a local outfitter regarding water levels at a USGS monitored gauge, but I would like to hear from anyone who has paddled the stretch between Speedwell Bridge and Chip’s Folly (approx 20 river miles). We will be doing an overnight trip and camping about halfway through.
Just curious to see if anyone has familiarity with the area and can make any recommendations. Thanks!
wading river info
Additionally, check out pp117-120 of Gertlers, 'garden state canoeing" for more detailed info on the wading river. Mentions water levels are impacted by cranberry diversions above tulpehocken. mentions the river gauge at godfrey bridge hould be 10.8 feet for an adequate level. 10.3 still floatable below tulpehocken.
Wading r is considered a very popular river esp on weekends…and all that implies in NJ
wading is
at 10.48 right now. The put ins are speedwell, hawkin bridge, godfrey bridge, evans bridge, bodine field and beaver branch. there is camping at hawkin,& godfrey and primitive group camping at bodine. I haven’t done speedwell to hawkin in a while so I can’t tell you if trees are down. the run below hawkin is good and passable all the way with just a few tricky strainers it starts to get tidal below beaver down to chips. keep in mind that Chips Folly is a private campground and they will charge a fee to park or take out there. there are not really and good take out spots below chips where it is wide open salt marsh and tidal. You can still paddle the open water all the way down to the Mullica before you hit any boat traffic to speak of. you could take out below the parkway at chestnut neck boatyard, the might charge you if they are paying attention
the run from hawkin to beaver is about 4 hours or so
my local intel source…
said ideally the Godfrey Bridge gauge should be in the high 12’s for the best conditions. My understanding is anything over 10 is navigable but i am hoping for a nice heavy downpour the night before we go…fingers crossed.
as for a take-out, i’ve heard the same about chips folly. according to the launch sites map on this site, there is a take-out on RL just north of chip’s folly at the end of beaver bridge road. I scoped it out on google earth and it looks to be acceptable. After my trip, I will report back…
that is
the spot I refer to as beaver branch, it is just below the bodine field camping area. you reach it from the sand road just east of harrisonville lake ( which is the oswego branch)