On a beautiful, balmy (70s) post electoral Sunday morning, 16 of us were out on the Seneca Breaks and the George Washington Canal - with some electing to attain back up and the others - having set shuttle at Pennyfield for the first time this year - proceeding down there.
Despite multiple itineraries and recovery options, by all reports we managed to exit the area with noone left on the river.
We were: ON THE BREAKS - Wayne, Toni, Gordy, Gus, Gregory, Barb, Pam, Allison, Alf ON THE GWC: Gary & Ginny Quam, Peter Ryan, Lisa Laden, Jean O’S, Hendrik, Mikey B
A couple of field notes: We used the Pennyfield takeout as we doubted the Canal had sufficient water from Blockhouse Point upstream. One should not take the extremely low level at Pennyfield as a measure of what's in the Ditch up from the transfer point (Mi 21). There is a hump in the Canal bed made by a gas-pipe crossing just 200 yards down from Mi 21, which raises the level upstream. Whether enough for navigability all the way to Violettes is unknown.
While virtually empty at our 10:00 start, the parking lot at Pennyfield was totally full a couple of hours later. And we must note with sorrow that our new "to Pennyfield" sign out by the river is too small and inland. We should spend the winter creating a better one.