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Trip Reports

Violettes Loop 24 July 2022 LF@2.99'
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We were ten: old timers Barb, Kathleen, Wayne, John, Toni, and Pam and relative newcomers (to me) Patrick L, Barb R., Laura T, and Glen D. All experienced paddlers. All paddled elegantly.


The GW Canal loop is tame at low water. The immensity of the piles of woody debris is revealed at this level although the fine folks at Calleva have chopped a passage around the log jam in the right channel below Diagonal Rapid, below that other rapid, and we ran river right for the first time in years. It was a treat. The three small drops that bracket Jacuzzi have changed, perhaps because the consolidating pile of debris just upriver diverts water. 


Kathleen brought trash bags as promised at the last CCA board meeting. Considerate picnickers left the remnants of their party on river right to permit a test of concept and Kathleen won our conservation award by cleaning up their trash. We finally realized a good use for open boats when we had to use a make-shift array of slings and carabiners to haul the debris out on the back deck of a kayak.


We started early to avoid the heat. Meeting time 8:30, on the water by 9:00, off by 11:30, before the temp reached 90. Water temperature was 87 degrees (over 90 yesterday evening) so getting wet was of limited benefit. The run is getting low. There were boulders to avoid in the top crossing and grabby cobble bars in getting back to the river below. Trip coordinator nagged people about drinking lots of water and threatened to test urine samples for evidence of dehydration, but no one seemed to suffer in the heat.


Food Critic’s corner. Some of the group, joined by Alf, picnicked on the deck at Barb B’s following. It was wonderful to enjoy the afternoon in the shade of her magnificent forest and more pleasant to share stories around the table than it would have been sitting in eddies. Much of this group had lunch at the new Local’s Restaurant in Poolesville two weeks previous, also a good trip enhancement.  


This ordinary little paddle seems like a triumph in the time of COVID19 and climate change. We have all paddled prettier, more pristine, more challenging streams but this little piece of modest whitewater allowed us paddle though the time of no shuttles. It remains runnable despite the floods and droughts of climate change and should for years. It is not classically beautiful wilderness, but it is lush green woods, filled with wildflowers and wildlife that changes continually. Most important, it allows us to do what we love to do, close to home, with friends. What could be better than that?

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