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Trip Reports

Antietam @ 205 cfs - 3 Nov 2017 - Tom Gray
Alford Cooley

ANTIETAM CREEK  -  Nov. 3, 2017

MD 34 (Sharpsburg) to Potomac River  -  6 miles

 

WATER LEVEL: USGS Sharpsburg = 2.79 feet or 205 cfs.  Usable water seemed 0.3.  We did drag bottom a few times, but that could have been avoided by better route selection.

TIME ON WATER: 4:00

WEATHER: mostly cloudy, 60s & 70s

PARTICIPANTS: K-1 Barbara Brown; OC-1 Bob Whiting, Ginny Quam, Gary Quam; OC-2 Barb Diederich & Tom Gray

 

This was Barb Diederich’s first canoe trip since childhood.  She enjoyed it, learned quickly how to use the draw strokes to make turns from the bow of the canoe.  As expected, we banged our sterns on the low dam below Burnside Bridge.  I asked the group to use the cobblestone beach at my daughter Julie Stinar’s Evensong Farm as a lunch stop.  The beach was muddy due to high water two days earlier.  Julie Stinar and her helper came down to visit while we were there. 

 

I had been telling Barb about surfing a canoe or kayak.  At a hydraulic in the lower half of the trip, we got a chance to watch others in the group surf.  Ginny and Gary both showed their chops by balancing on the hydraulic.  Of course, the highlight of the trip is the long Furnace Rapids near the end.  No one had any problem navigating the rapids.  While on the shuttle, we stopped at Nutter’s Ice Cream in Sharpsburg.

   - Tom Gray

 

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