John Snitzer
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5/30/2017 9:33 AM
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A cast of thousands, well eleven, ran the Potomac NB release on Sunday. Beth, Virginia, Valerie, John I and II in K1, Tim, Mark I and II in OCI, Bruce in a ducky and Henry and Sally in a shredder. Henry and Sally were new to this author. They drive that shredder like a sports car. It was a pleasure to watch their crisp eddy turns. The gauge shows 1000 cfs but it seemed a bit more, with the waves at the early ledges a bit bigger and at Top of the World a bit filled in. We had predictions of dire weather but actually had only a few showers at put in which ended by lunch. All paddled well.
We lunched at the walkway along the river at Blue Hole. The traditional lunch spot may have been a nice cobble bar at one time. It has become weedy, soggy, shaded, and cold. The view across the Blue Hole pool at the cliff is far superior to that of the old concrete railroad wall and no one has been observed playing in that surfing hole for group entertainment since the first Obama term.
The forest was amazingly lush after the wet spring. There was a single nice patch of mountain laurel in flower but the ninebark dominated. Multiflora rose repaid its nasty tendency to invade fields, draw blood, and puncture dry suits with a glorious display of many white flowers.
Robin's Nest was the peak of the paddling day with some bouncing down the knuckles on river left and some paddling the tongue between the boulders and the holes on river right, moving right to left into the eddy below. Side note: where did the name Robin's Nest come from? All had nice runs. The big tree, 30-40 long, mostly submerged, still lurks midstream between Blue Hole and the railroad wall. Run left.
We ran into the fine folks from Baltimore on the river and in the parking lot after. They reported a good day on the river. Trip was rated 10/10.
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