by John Snitzer
The key to comfortable paddling in winter is avoiding wind. The wind chill factor that seems unimportant while you're walking out to your car is huge when you're wet from a rapid or have wet hands on your paddle. Today on the Violettes Lock paddle the wind was calm and all seemed comfy in spite of low temps, 30 when I left home, 41 when I got back.
Lisa L, Miki, Larry, Rich, and John paddled Violettes to Pennyfield via the GW Canal, LF gauge at 4.0. Nice to get out and stretch. The cold night froze the river along the edges so logs, rocks, twigs, and river banks had a shelf of ice perched at some recent river level. The water in Muddy Branch was colder and the surface there was skimmed with ice: slush at the surface, thin plates of crystals growing into one another, actual plates of ice that sounded like breaking windows when they fractured. The aggregating crystals were the neatest--making a tinkling hissing as your boat slid through. The tunnel under the canal featured icicles. We spotted one eagle, resting on his snag and a flock of sea gulls mid-river.
This was a no dawdling trip. With the water just above freezing no one was inclined to play extensively. Some of the woody debris has been re-arranged but we still need a flood to flush everything out. We went right at Jacuzzi and found the log jam to be worse than ever with more logs piled on top of the wedge on river left. The ledge was rocky even at 4.0 feet. Go left at Jacuzzi. Time on water was 1:40. All paddled elegantly. Miki reports that the biscuit with sausage gravy and fried eggs was worthwhile at the post-trip luncheon at Watershed Cafe.