🏞️ Through the Water Gap | Outdoorsy Newsletter
And peak fall foliage colors
In this edition:
“A gap in the urban map”: Take a tour through the Delaware Water Gap, the crown jewel that nearly disappeared.
Your foliage update: Peak colors have finally hit in Philadelphia! We show you where to go see them now before the gorgeous scenes fade away.
From cargo to canoes: Learn about the cargo ships and tugboat captains that make billions of dollars on our region’s waterways.
☀️ Your weekend weather outlook: It feels like fall again, and there is no rain in sight.
— Paola Pérez ([email protected])
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The Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area is a popular outdoors destination tucked worlds away from busy cities, but still close enough via short road trip (or you’ll reach it at the very end of your Appalachian Trail hike). It’s a beloved part of our region, and locals do everything they can to protect it.
Here are some key facts:
📍 The gap is nestled between New Jersey and Pennsylvania (about 100 miles north of Philadelphia)
⛰️ It encompasses 70,000 acres of mountains, forest, and the Delaware River
🛶 You can go paddling, hiking, fishing, swimming, camping, biking, and many more activities here all year long
Learn more about this spot formed by geology, controversy, and conservation.
News worth knowing
A notoriously toxic New Jersey landfill, once ranked the most dangerous dump in the nation, is no longer considered a threat to human health or the environment.
A pair of farmers in Western Pennsylvania just won the coveted “Grower of the Year” award for their massive pumpkins. Can you guess how much the three winning gourds weigh together?
Five friends turned their Kelly Drive run into a weekly gathering of 250 people. They say it’s become much more than just a way to stay healthy.
New Jersey officials have declared a drought watch and ask residents to voluntarily conserve water. Much of Pennsylvania is also experiencing very dry conditions. In Philadelphia, this means breaking century-old rainless records — with the exception of a mere “trace” detected early Thursday.
Philly set another record when it reached 84 degrees on Tuesday. And looking ahead to winter, early forecasts call for warmer temperatures and an overall milder season.
Now is the time to go leaf peeping. Charmaine Runes put together a colored-coded, county-by-county interactive to show you exactly when and where to see these shades of yellow, red, orange, brown, and purple from trees across the Keystone State.
This guide showed you when leaves were:
🟢 not yet changed
🟡 starting to change
🟠 near peak
Now, pretty much the entire state is either:
🔴 at peak
🟤 starting to fade
Right now: Philadelphia and the surrounding counties are finally 🔴 peak color 🔴 this week, so you should be able to see some beautiful colors close to home. If you’re willing to venture a little further, check our map for other local places to admire the best of the season’s palette.
Look out for next week’s forecast, right here in Outdoorsy.
🎤 Now we’re passing the microphone to Jason Nark. You’ll always find his work here. Here’s one I wanted to bring you from 2019.
On a brisk, clear November morning at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Captain Jesse Briggs nudged a tugboat’s bow against a barge loaded with steel beams. He sipped black coffee while two deckhands hopped off the boat and onto the barge to cinch the two tight.
The Penrose pushed the barge south down the Delaware River and turned into the Schuylkill, passing beneath two bridges and Passyunk Avenue and all the motorists on their commutes. Yellow leaves swirled on the narrow river until the tug mowed them over. Past the bare trees on the port side, junked cars piled up like mangled steel mountains. The starboard side was pipes and petroleum tanks. Sometimes tires roll down the bank and into the water, Briggs said by the junkyard, but sometimes something wild appears too, a reminder that waters are an environment, not just an economy.
“Look, there’s a bald eagle,” he said.
The Delaware River, the Schuylkill, and the watershed that feeds them generate billions of dollars in revenue and taxes, a wide, murky vein that’s fed Philadelphia and other waterfront cities for centuries. Thousands make a living from the watershed, most of them south of Trenton where the river is deep and tidal. — Jason Nark
Dive in for a closer look at how ecological and recreational concerns have historically intersected with the economics of the river.
A calming view
🌳 Your outdoorsy experience
Longtime Outdoorsy reader Guido Gaeffke wrote in to tell us about his latest expedition:
My Philly Adventure Facebook Group has now more than 1,200 members and I took 7 to hike in the Austrian Alps (from hut to hut). Met many Dutch and Germans in the huts and were stunned by the incredible scenery.
Incredible indeed! Cheers.
📮 Before we wrap up for the season, I want to hear from you. What was your favorite outdoorsy activity? Did you try something new? Email me back with a sentence or two about your adventures.
One more thing: Outdoorsy was the brainchild of my colleague, senior newsletter strategist Ashley Hoffman. This edition is the last under her review as she departs The Inquirer. I want to acknowledge and thank her for her tireless dedication to Outdoorsy. It would not exist without her brilliance, drive, and passion for serving audiences. Just like the seasons, our lives are marked by change, many of them bittersweet. Please join me in wishing Ashley the best on her journey.
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