Of late the River Access Committee has moved at the languid pace generally associated with the Christmas holiday, but we can report that:
On Goose Creek, opposite our usual Sycolin Road Put-In, the club was approached by lawyers for a development to be built over the next three years, asking our advice on an easement/ proffer for a permanent put-in with parking for 30 cars to be finished in three years. Gregory Maassen, Pam White, and Alf Cooley made a site visit, and CCA Chairman Cotton sent our enthusiastic recommendations to the Loudoun County Parks. Pam and Alf are to make a brief presentation to Loudoun’s Board of Supervisors in mid-February.
On the Patapsco running past Ellicott City, we discovered that the critical online USGS Hollofield gauge is scheduled to be taken offline at the end of 2021. USGS routinely engages in a game that insiders call "gauge chicken," hoping to prod groups into providing funding. We contacted the USGS Regional Water Center and the Baltimore Canoe and Kayak Club to see if and how the gauge can be saved. It has been offline for 12 of the past 20 years. The solution is in getting another entity to pony up half of the $17,000 annual cost. Flood-hammered Ellicott City may be interested. Your suggestions are welcome.
In the familiar Lower C&O Canal, by Fall's end we had gotten the Swains-to-Pennyfield-to Violettes level raised to the full. This enables the Violettes/George Washington Canal Loop and, we hoped, the paddle up from Swains; see the Trip Report on how much more needs to be done. On foot, John Snitzer and Alf scouted Level 14 (Anglers to Carderock) on Dec. 20 to see possibilities for raising the water level a foot from Mile 11 up through Whitewater. If we can get the C&O Canal Park to focus on this, we could add two miles downstream from Anglers bridge and one mile upstream to the protected paddling on the canal. A broad set of old boater steps at Anglers already leads down into the canal. A week previously on Dec. 13, Alf biked down the Georgetown Level and found no progress on the NHP’s Grace Street project—and the canal almost totally dry. The C&O Park says that the second canal boat will be in Georgetown by April, so water would have to be restored by then. A set of proposed goals for the canal are on the website. In early January the park told us it was lowering the level at Violettes for the winter, but our scouts tell us it can still be used for the GW Canal Loop.
Alf Cooley is a member of the River Access Committee.
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