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            I began paddling whitewater in 1995. I lived in Madison, NJ at the time. I spent most of my initial paddling time on rivers and creeks in and around NJ, including the Rockaway  River through Boonton Gorge. I never had any reason to believe I wasn't supposed to be there. Neither I, nor any of the people I was paddling with back then had ever been approached by police, or other officials, telling us we shouldn't paddle there. As time went on I heard of other people having contacts with the local police in which the officers implied that people shouldn't paddle there. I never, however, heard of anyone being directly told that it was illegal.

            In the summer of 2006, there was an incident, involving two novice paddlers, in which they ended up out of their boats. One had to be "rescued" off of a midstream rock by the local rescue personnel. I read about it in the Daily Record and was very surprised to see a local official quoted as saying that “kayaking is an illegal use of the river.” Concerned, I spent a few hours searching the Boonton Municipal Code. I was unable to find any reference to kayaking, canoing, rafting, boating, etc. etc. of any kind. So I sent an email to the two men who had been involved in the incident requesting details. (I had encountered them earlier in the summer on another river) They told me that their ticket read “Ord. 205-05”. In the Boonton Municipal Code, this is the ordinance which prohibits swimming. I was glad that there wasn't any ordinance regarding paddling, wished them well, and let the subject go.

            That fall, a friend of mine heard of paddlers being told that paddling was illegal by Boonton Police officers, and being told to leave the river. Then in January, he was told by two officers as he finished paddling that he wasn't supposed to be paddling there. When he asked what ordinance prohibited paddling, the officers were unclear, and suggested he should direct his questions to the town council at a meeting. He called me and we planned on going to the next one we could attend.

            In preparation for the meeting, I called the police dept. I asked for clarification regarding whether or not there was an ordinance regarding paddling on the Rockaway River. The police officer whom I spoke to told me that there wasn't, but that the council was working on one at the moment.

            Thus we arrived at Feb. 5th. 2007

            If the town of Boonton were to pass an ordinance which effectively prevented paddling on the stretch of river from the base of Boonton Falls to the Reservoir, it would mean the loss of one of  the relatively few whitewater stretches in NJ. While there are a large number of places to fish, bike, hike, jog, play golf, etc. in NJ, there are fewer than 20 established whitewater runs. Most of these only have enough water to paddle them on a dozen days in a given year.

                    The stretch of the Rockaway River through Boonton Gorge, though short, is an appealing run to whitewater paddlers for many of the same reasons that it is popular with fisherman and other outdoor enthusiasts: a convenient location relative to population centers and highways, passage through public land for nearly it's entire length, and, of course, the scenery. At normally paddled levels, it's a good intermediate to advanced-intermediate run with fairly consistent class III-IV rapids throughout most of the run. Unlike many stretches of whitewater, it has neither overly difficult or dangerous individual drops (other than Boonton Falls, which, to my knowledge has been run only 2 or 3 times), nor any long segments of flat water. It seems to suffer from fewer blockages by trees that many similar runs. And finally, due to its relatively large drainage, it runs more frequently and throughout more of the year than do most of the other runs in Northern NJ, the Poconos, and the Southern Catskills. All of these factors have made it one of the best whitewater destinations in northern NJ for many years. The earliest trip report I've read on it was published in 1979 in the American Whitewater Association Journal. To my knowledge, in the 30 years since, it had been paddled frequently by whitewater kayakers and canoers without any incidents involving local rescue services, until 2006. That incident, is the first and only event involving paddlers which I have been able to find any record of.

             I have personally paddled it over 45 times over the last 14 years or so with about 12 -15 other people. I would estimate that another 50-100 trips down it which have occurred in the last 10 years. (click here to see all of the trips or to add your information to the list) Once again, I am aware of NO incidents in which rescue workers have had to save paddlers other than the summer of 2006.

            In the last 17 years, there have been three other situations on the river in which the rescue services were called out. Two resulted in fatalities and one did not. None of them involved paddlers. One was a suicide attempt, another a swimmer who dove off of the cliff into the pool at the base of the falls and the last was a young boy who slipped into the river accidentally.
            All in all, when one compares these numbers to the 50 people who have drowned on the Delaware  since 1980, or the 25 people who have drowned in Round Valley Reservoir since 1970, the 2 recent (since 1990) incidents in Boonton Gorge seem to be much less extraordinary.