River run: Potomac, Little Falls section
Time: 10:30 meet-up
Little Falls Gauge: 3.4
Little Falls Tide: low at 12:55pm
Water temperature: 67
Air Temperature: 72
General Weather: Partly sunny, then cloudy and looking like rain, and back to partly sunny to sunny.
Paddlers: Mark Brenneman, Philip Elliot, Ned Howenstein, Kent Marcoux, Peter Ryan (TC)
The amount of water traveling down Z-Channel was Goldilocks right. Paddlers proceeded down Z politely and adroitly. No adventures were had.
The five meandered below the rubble dam, dipping in and out of pour overs’ modest outflows. Herons, Canada geese, and Cormorants winged by or glared from above, or among, the rubble. Four traversed the ‘mid-dam challenge well. Two surfed the final dam outflow at river left.
Not much to report about the trip to Beaver slide, as midway waves were semi-washed out albeit squirrely. No long surfing sessions by anyone because of the washout (for those familiar with one of the trip’s paddlers, that’s saying something).
All five ran Beaver slide. TC also ran the outflow before the Beaver slide takeout, something he’s been wanting to do for a year. At Beaver, the TC went left. The rest ran a fully watered Beaver slide right (traditional) which allowed a straight shot out into the main body of the Potomac. Ned and the TC attained the first level up Beaver slide left, but failed their boof attempts. An initial attempt to go beyond the first level by the TC led to a pin, a rollover, and intimate contact with the bottom, followed by a roll-up.
All scouted Little Falls proper from the Scouting rock, observing juicy, juicy, waves below. A generous and joyful wave train on the Maryland side (as promised) extended past the middle islands.
The TC took a creeky cut not usually available at lower levels to reach the Maryland sneak; a sneak into a sneak. Philip roller-coasted the middle passage – it looked like a blast - and continued on down the Maryland side. Mark and Ned paddled the traditional Maryland sneak. Mark, Ned and the TC arrived unremarkably into the surprisingly large Scouting rock eddy. Kent avoided that eddy by dropping straight down into the center of a prodigious Welcome Wave, but his Zen Flow bounced out and he continued downriver. The TC took a straight line over the last drop and down the middle of the entire Maryland wave train; it was everything he’d hoped it would be. Mark and Ned pealed out at the end of the middle islands.
But LF was not done with Kent; the very last wave on the Maryland side claimed he and his boat. Kent refused a tow, managing his self-rescue with a short swim and rock scramble. Philip rescued his boat.
Another great day on the river.