Chair's Cockpit
By David (Cotton) Cottingham
As the summer paddling season winds down, I think back on another great few months of CCA activities. The spring and early summer were fairly wet, enabling local paddlers to run a variety of streams throughout the region. I had many fun runs on the Shenandoah Staircase and Needles. By August, rains stopped, and our region had the driest August on record. Low water in the Potomac caused us to alter the course for the Wildwater Nationals. Most of my paddling was then at Little Falls. I raise the local hydrologic conditions to remind everyone how fortunate we are to have such a large variety of paddling options within several hours of the DC Metro area. CCA trips took advantage of water where it was—from the GW Canal, Anglers Inn, and Little Falls to trips to dam-controlled rivers like the Yough and North Branch of the Potomac. I hope you participated in many CCA trips and enjoyed them.
Potomac Wildwater Nationals
CCA worked with the USA Wildwater Committee of the American Canoe Association to co-sponsor the Potomac Wildwater Nationals over Labor Day Weekend (for the winners, see the article elsewhere in this issue). Wildwater racing is a small but important subset of kayaking and canoeing. It's big in the international racing circuit and more popular in Europe than the US. The kayaks and canoes require a learning curve that I, personally, have not mastered. Fortunately, Sandrine Deglin and Bob Bofinger are local paddlers who have been on the USA international competition team. They have multiple wildwater boats. They held introductory sessions on the Potomac for CCA members and others who wanted to try wildwater. One CCA member was so taken with the sport that he bought a used downriver kayak and entered the national championship race.
Risa Shimoda, Rolando Arrietta, Lynn Miller, and I served on the organizing committee with the ACA team. None of us realized what we were getting CCA or ourselves into. Because of the tremendous turnout of CCA volunteers, the races came off well. More than 30 CCA members volunteered to help. We weighed boats, shuttled race officials to the course start and end points, timed the racers, and provided food and beverages for the racing group. A huge THANK YOU to all who volunteered. Like so many other CCA activities, these events don't happen without you.
When we held our debrief with Wildwater Committee organizers, they effusively thanked the CCA volunteers. I want to make sure that you all know that the racers and committee members very much appreciated your commitment to making the races successful.
We also agreed that the Potomac River presents many challenges to future races like this. We had initially thought the classic downriver races would start at the eddy below Rocky Island, accessed from Sandy Beach on the Maryland side, and end at Carderock. When water levels dropped to about 3.0 on the Little Falls gage, race organizers decided to start the race just above Portage Rapid (just below O-Deck), with access from the Virginia side, and end at Angler's Inn. The Virginia side is a different unit of the National Park Service, and we hadn't applied for a permit to hold the race from there. Bob (who is USA Wildwater Committee Chair) and Risa were able to work it out with the NPS. However, when a few racers returned to the Virginia Great Falls Park for the afternoon heats, the line to get in stretched more than half a mile. Ashley McEwan was shuttling them there in a Calleva van. Several walked into the park to make their start times.
All in all, the races were a big success. We learned a lot about running a race that had international rules. Who knows when or if CCA will get another opportunity to host another nationally significant race. Again, thank you to all who pitched in.
Potomac Access Improvement Priorities
Alf Cooley, Gordy Lang, John Snitzer, Jim Scott, and other members of the CCA River Access Committee for years have been asking the NPS C&O Canal National Historical Park to improve access to various points along the Potomac. Parking, paths between parking lots and the river, and the "last 10 feet" of getting into the water safely have been our priority. CCA formally presented requests to NPS for several locations in 2020. Since then, NPS has not responded to our ideas. On the contrary, it has closed Lock 5 parking and access for a major construction project.
Committee members thought we should focus on a straightforward access improvement project that could be achieved with little or no NPS money to demonstrate that CCA members have solid ideas that benefit paddlers, fishermen, and others. We decided that the path between the Potomac and C&O Canal at Blockhouse Point/Mile Marker 21 was ideal a location for an initial project. We are meeting in early October to continue discussing this project with NPS staff. Fingers crossed we get permission to implement the project. If we do, we will be seeking donations from CCA members and others, particularly those who regularly use this pathway.
When we met with Shaun Lehmann, NPS Partnership Coordinator for the lower section of the park, he said that he gets requests from many paddlers and paddling groups about river access. Improving access at some sites is straightforward and would be relatively inexpensive (a few thousand dollars), whereas others would require extensive planning and cost millions of dollars. Shaun asked whether CCA would convene "local paddling interests" to establish a sense of who uses which access points and rank which areas the paddling community would like to see NPS improve access.
On behalf of CCA, I agreed to coordinate such a discussion. I identified at least 11 popular whitewater paddling access points between the tidal Potomac below Little Falls and Riley's Lock. I have spoken with several people about this, including leaders of paddling companies (like Calleva), other associations (like Team River Runner and the Great Falls Foundation), and informal paddling groups. I will begin organizing this discussion soon. Let me know if you have ideas about ways NPS could improve river access along this section of the Potomac. I'll keep CCA members up to date as the discussions progress.
Oct. 5 Club Picnic
In the meantime, I hope to see many of you at the CCA picnic Oct. 5. It will be in the early afternoon following a Sunday paddle to GW Canal. CCA will provide hamburgers, veggie burgers, hot dogs, and water. Please bring a dish to share. Details are posted on the website calendar.
—Cotton