Fifteen paddlers ran the GW canal via Violette loop. We were Tony Allred, Mikey Baummer, Alf Cooley, Dmitry Didenkov, Jackie Hoagland, Ethan Green, Steffan Slater, Andrew Troy, Pam White and her friend Lynne Carpenter, Bob Harford, Jim Scott, Beth Koller and coordinator John Snitzer with co-coordinator Hildy Ferraiolo. Except for the inflatable boaters Steffan and Lynn - all paddling K1s.
The water level was at 4.4', which is bodacious level for late July. Crossing the Potomac, we had the Coast Guard hurrying us along because of a Trump course Event. Once at the mouth of the GW canal, we split into 3 groups. One group taking the right channel at Diagonal rapid (with (Jacuzzi), the second group taking center and the 3rd group the standard left channel.
We had a spill or two, but recovered fairly easy. Good team work!
One goal of this trip was also to look at access issues at the Blockhouse Point portage. Hauling out on the slip-and- slide river bank and climbing the steep slope up to the towpath is treacherous. We had pratfalls today. Combined, these slopes create class 3-4 access in a class 1-2 run.
This past week, Jim Scott talked with an NPS contact about some of the safety problems getting to the river and the challenges of getting them addressed. The outcome was a verbal agreement that CCA might design and build small scale projects, working with the NPS. Today, we took a first step on that at Blockhouse Point.
Steffan, Tony, Alf and I (Snitzer), picked potential sites for new steps and measured the slope profiles. Next, we will design steps to satisfy a paddlers dreams. Then more skilled and temperate people will negotiate the details of the arrangements with all parties and we will be in the step building business.
This is a heads up that if this works out, we will need funding and volunteers. Please give thought to how we might fund a modest stone construction project. If we decide to build with volunteers, we will need able bodied construction workers, including some not yet on Medicare.
Botanical sidebar: we are into mid-summer flowers with Joe Pye weed, summer phlox, rose mallow, and bindweed in full flower. There is a nPost Messageice clump of Mallows (Hibiscus moscheutos) flowering adjacent to the parking lot with big flat white and pink flowers.