I’ve been thinking of doing something interesting down the Egg Harbor River since it’s around where I work. So when the invite for some tubing came up, I surely agreed to join in on the fun.
The location of this fine adventure was the Winding River Campground in Mays Landing. It was pretty simple to get to and also very simple to do. Just go inside, pay to rent a tube ($15 plus a $5 deposit that you get back when you return the tube), fill out a form then you wait for a van to come and pick you up. The van kinda reminded me of Tony Mocelli’s van in Who’s the Boss. It was a short ride and he dropped us off at a little park and then the mighty river would take us back to the campground where our car was parked.
The river itself was pretty nice and seemed clean to me. There was an occasional floating plastic bottle, beer can, etc. but not too much stuff. The water temperature wasn’t too bad either. I was expecting colder water, so it was nice to be a bit warmer than expected.
The actual adventure took a couple of hours. I’m not sure exactly when it began, but I’d say it was 2.5 to 3 hours total of tubing fun. I really enjoyed trying to steer around a the river by paddling with my hands against the current at times. It was difficult in spots, but I seemed to get better at it as the day wore one.
I also really liked helping others navigate and get unstuck from branches too. There were some tricky spots, but I was able to steer a defeated tuber to safety during the second half of the adventure.
What really surprised me the most was the level of river people. The majority of them seemed to be very strange and from poor reality TV. Many even sounded to of had accents of sorts I couldn’t determine. I’d say they were river folk.
A gentleman with magic marker on his head was a very close talker to my tube, but I was kind and attempted to educate him of the finer things in life such as the amazing film Milo and Otis. I’m not sure he understood it’s importance to society, but oh well I did try.
There was also a very strange man who helped give me a push off into the right direction. Though he nearly stole one of my fellow river travelers, apparently it was just a joke and she was released to freedom.
All in all it was a pretty powerful experience and one that I would like to try again.