Rich Conde
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2/14/2020 5:03 PM
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Given only 1 day of notice for this trip, overcast skies and rain in the forecast, several "maybes" for this trip turned into "no thanks". However I deemed the single "yes" from Robin Willard to be sufficient to proceed with the trip. We paddled from Old Frederick Road to River Road. We ended up with 438 cfs on the Hollofield gauge on the Patapsco. This was a nice level; there was enough water to easily make it through the wide, rocky and typically shallow section in the middle of the run. And there was plenty of water in the rapids; in particular Suicide Rapid still featured some juicy drops, fast water, and at this relatively low level some "trip" rocks to watch out for.
I was a bit short on time for the trip, otherwise I would have gone past the River Road takeout and run the section that was closed for much of last year due construction related to the removal of the dam just downstream. There were some changes at the River Road takeout since I paddled it last year. Both sides of the road are now posted "No Parking". But we left a vehicle there in the morning - no ticket plus there were several other vehicles parked there when we got to the takeout. The very wide shoulder that is furthest from the river had "No Parking" signs just at either. There was not a sign in the middle so maybe the intent is just to keep vehicles off the ends. But in the future I will plan on taking out downstream any way to run the new rapids below.
Oh and the forecasted bad weather - ended up being pretty warm (maybe 50), cloudy skies and only a couple of brief intervals of very light rain. It took 2 hours to paddle 6.2 miles.
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