With an abundance of rain over the course of the work week we 8 paddlers (Lynne, Lauren, Marilyn, Sergey, Dean, Natalie, and Diane) availed ourselves of the muddy branch off Sycolin Road to access Goose Creek. The mouth of the muddy branch is completely blocked by a rather large, fully entrenched tree at its exit onto Goose. So out we all got, taking turns clambering over and sliding gracefully into Goose. Other than that, we enjoyed a beautiful day. We saw several bald eagles (or the same pair several times), turtles, geese and a gosling, and ducks of several types.
Goose Creek's gauge prediction is notorious for being erroneously optimistic, so I was quite pleased to see 3.19 ft (900 cfs) at 8 AM this morning. Golf Course/Cooke's Mill Rapid was bouncy and fun. We lunched and ferried here for awhile. Natalie and I ran the rapid twice. I might have done it a third time, but for the snake that scared the crap out of me. The mill drop after Route 7 was not much of a drop, due to the water level, but did provide some nice surfing. Unfortunately, Clapham Mill rapid right before the take out was washed out by backflow from the flooded Potomac. (Edwards Landing gage across the Po read 12.66 feet, as opposed to its usual five foot level - so the rapid had lost practically eight feet of its gradient.)
It was a beautiful day, with great paddlers!