We had 3 paddlers join us for the first Wednesday Evening run from the Old Angler’s Inn put in on the Potomac River down to the Carderock take out. The water level was a healthy 3.7 ft, and the discharge was 8,240 cfs at the time we took the boats out according to the Little Falls gage. The group consisted of Hugh Powell, Logan Hoffman and me. This trip was originally slated as an Angler’s Inn to Lock 10 run, but we realized that we would not have enough daylight to accomplish that, so we shortened the run to take out at Carderock instead. This turned out to be a very good call.
We launched at 6:15 PM and arrived at Carderock at about 7:45 PM getting us to our cars right before sunset. This week the water level was high enough that the Offutt rapids were in play, which is a seasonal springtime treat. We were also able to enjoy some play time around Yellow Falls, but we did not get a chance to run Stubblefield Falls since we had to shorten the run. All three rapids offered plenty of opportunities to practice some surfing, ferrying, and other forms of Tom Foolery. I’m very happy to report that we only had 1 swim (me) on this trip and no major incidents.
Submitted by
Dean Hawes