Bob Maxey saved the Thursday Paddlers from an unseemly gap in our schedule by leaping into the breach to take six of us out to a strongly running Shenadoah (1,240 cfs [min 280]) from Foltz' Mill to Luray / Rte 211 bridge. We were: Bob, John and Cindy Hauris, John Snitzer, Cindy Rogers (fresh up from Georgia) and Alf Cooley.
Consolidated boats at Manassas from 10:00 to 10:20, then met Cindy R just S of Front Royal at 11:10, and put into the river at the public landing just below the first major rapid at Newport. Sunny & warm - we were all looking forward to working on our rolls - but were dissuaded by listening to a lady taking water samples at the put-in who said the e-coli count in the river was running around 2,000 units, when the level considered safe for swimming & kayaking was around 240. Water was cool, and the 1,240 cfs moved us smartly along, but by mid-afternoon the sun had us moving from the shade on one side of the river to that on the other as it meandered down between the Blue Ridge and the Massanutten.
Others on the river were a number of tubers at the beginning, some ducky drivers in the middle, and a great blue or two at the end. Some of us joined for supper at a fine Front Royal restaurant called Try Thai. I suspect that all of us were thorough in our soaping down for showers that evening.