We had gorgeous weather and lots of new faces today for our Sunday Paddle. As we set out from Violette’s Lock the Little Falls gauge was 3.6/7,000 cfs. In attendance were: Tina Schneider, Lisa Laden, Alf Cooley, Dean Hawes, Alan Gale, Dan Rick, Jim Scott, Kathleen Sengstock, Toni Bickart, Michael Baummer, Pam White, Louise Saulnier, Linda Woody, Barbara Bullock, Frank Daspit, Jennifer Spiegelman, Denise Chambers, Jason Marshall, Bob Harford, Jeff Kinney, Michael Hering, and Elizabeth Williams. A total of 22 paddlers! With so many new faces, we opted to split into 3 groups with Dean, Pam, and Lisa each guiding a smaller group over to the GW canal. Thank you so much for your help Dean and Lisa!
Dean’s group, consisting of Jennifer, Tina, Bob, Dan, Kathleen, and Denise spent most of their time playing at Surfer’s Ledge, Jacuzzi, and Exit Rapids. Dean reports that they practiced lots of fundamentals with no out of boat experiences. Lots of practice rolls, and congratulations to Bob who got his first roll today!
Lisa shared that her group, consisting of Jim, Louise, Linda, Toni and Jason, had an uneventful trip down the GW. Paddlers in her group included returning paddlers who hadn’t been out in a while. Welcome back! Jim and Lisa peeled off after Exit Rapid to attain back up the Breaks. The attainment went well until the end, when trees blocked the entrance back into the channel next to the towpath (due to the higher water level). Lisa requests that any sympathetic beavers get to work on those trees!
Pam’s group started out from Violette’s last, but passed Dean’s play group at Diagonal. We were Alf, Mikey, Jeff, Alan, Elizabeth, Michael, Barbara and Frank. We had all the canoes with Barbara, Frank, and Alan in OC-1s and Elizabeth and Michael in an OC-2. Alan was instrumental in showing our canoes the best lines. Our group practiced some attainments and ferrying, demonstrating good boat control with no issues. A few of us even surfed. We mostly just enjoyed the surroundings and even spotted a bald eagle. Alf and I counted 11 turtles in the C&O canal. We also observed the water level in the canal to be significantly lower. Alf stopped at Pennyfield on the way home, and sure enough, one of the wickets is open allowing a large amount of water to gush through. Alf has promised to reach out to his contacts at NHP to alert them and see if this can be rectified.
Lastly, the scramble up from the Potomac to the C&O Canal was very difficult for several of our paddlers. We’re excited for the prospect of CCA’s partnership with NHP to put in some proper steps to assist here.