Chuck's Big Adventure in Pennsylvania: Jim Thorpe River Adventures

LEHIGHTON, Pennsylvania — The Pocono Mountains are many things to many people.

To some, the mountains are the honeymoon capital of America. To others, it’s a place with many fall festivals and October leaf peepers. To many, though, the mountains protect the rushing Lehigh River and some exciting times with whitewater rafting.

Jerry McAward owns Jim Thorpe River Adventures.

He said this river is a huge part of his life and he wants to share its beauty with others.

"We always say, 'a river runs through it,' you know, to coin a phrase," McAward said. "I came from New York. I came here in college, and I couldn't believe that this river and the Lehigh River Gorge was two hours west of Manhattan. And I kept coming back, and a vacation became a vocation and a career. I think the river itself is just beautiful."

McAward said there are sections of the river that you don't see humans, often very close to civilization.

"But for us, running a river company, being the vehicle that people use to create a memory and to create that family memories or adventure memories, it's really my staff and I just love that part of it," he said. "Sometimes we see families who come for, you know, 20, 30 years and they, the kids bring in, they marry, they bring their spouses, and the kids come, and grandkids and we know them. We know them on these annual  trips here. So, we have these annual relationships. That's kind of super fun for us to see every year."

McAward has been leading people along the water for decades, and he does see a difference in the past few years in who really wants to climb into the rafts.

"My parents were not necessarily children of the 60s, but many of the people that went outside in the 70s were the children of the 60s," McAward said. "A lot of people when I first started were older than me, 30 years older than me. I was 19, 20, 21, but they were all people you wanted to spend time with, so what I've always liked about this business, from the river guiding standpoint, is every walk of life defines a common note here to play on."

"They can be doctors, lawyers, plumbers, people that normally wouldn't mix in society find their find a way here," he said. "The guests come from different walks of life to this, and very much ethnic groups come they because we're so close to the mixing pot of New York, New Jersey, Philly. It's kind of neat to be that place people go."

The Pocono Mountains are home to the river and to these exciting raft adventures. It is also a place that has changed through the years.

"The Lehigh River is kind of located in the southwestern Poconos," McAward said. "I had an uncle who came to the Poconos, and when he said the Poconos in the early 1930s and 40s, it was kind of dense in Pennsylvania. The Poconos was a smaller area, and as the Pocono name got bigger, the area sort of grew. So now it's generally recognized to be almost four counties, and the Lehigh River is in the southwestern corner of that, what we call the Poconos."

My ride was with three other Jim Thorpe River Adventures staff members. We cruised down a few miles to the south to an area called Carnage, which frankly made for a rough ride, but an exciting one. Like others who take the trip down the Lehigh, it is a place where memories are made forever.

"I just I think I speak for my staff when we say just providing this vehicle in kayaks and rafts and bikes, the people come and they create memories," McAward said. "Here in the Poconos I've spoken to the Pocono Visitors Bureau people, and we're all in the business of making memories and people come here for generations to do a variety of things. This is often a day trip. Sometimes people combine it with a bike day and a rafting day. But I think just the human organization that we have that provides this service, if you will, for the public, is just my favorite thing."

There are rides for every type of taste and whitewater experience. I wanted to take the easy water. McAward found a place for me.

"It's the one that families mostly go to, young kids," he said. "Older people who show up with abject fear, and they haven't been here, we'll always encourage them to take this section. We don't want to necessarily take their money twice, but if they come here and they're like, 'oh, that wasn't as bad as I thought,' then the next section we have, when we combine this with another upper section, we call it 'Intro to Whitewater.' It's got a really good first rapid and then…the section river, we call it 'Big Time Whitewater.'"

That, McAward said, is the steepest. 

"It drops, the steepest, the riverbed drops. And then down near Jim Thorpe it begins to level off," he said. "And this drops about half that gradient. So... this section will have longer pools. If you want to swim it's a little cold, but you can swim today. And then the longer pools and shorter rapids. So ... almost a different demographic of people gravitate to this section."

This is a must-see attraction to really see the beauty of the Poconos and the adventure of tackling the running water. It also is a place where nature, water and screaming raft rowers make up a memory to be cherished forever.