White Water Run on the Po

Frank and Kathy Collins invited the husband and I on a little easy white water run a couple of  Sundays ago. I don't own a ww boat so I brought my Wilderness Tsunami 120. James brought his old Dagger.

At the launch off the C & O Canal. Frank on the water and my husband on the bank.  We paddled upstream and took to the Potomac right above the "Breaks."

Kathy with James in the background.

James

We ran into an older couple as we entered  the side channel that took us around the Breaks on the Potomac. They seemed like lovely people and after they paddled ahead of us Kathy told me the couple is in their 70s. I want to be still paddling in my 70s, I do.

It was right about here in the trip that Frank said "Randi, I saw you do an eddy turn!" and I thought, aha, Dale Williams and the scary Elliot Cut taught me something I retained and used. Woohoo! It's a good day!

I was not as grim as this selfie makes me appear.

Frank and Kathy

James' boat emptying after he flipped while fooling around. I got to swoop in and tow him to the side when he lost grip on his boat as Frank towed it out.

Although it's hard to see the Virginia bluebells were all blooming on the banks and the trees just beginning to green.

Bluebells to the left on the bank

You can just make those Bluebells out

This is actually how I felt. It was a happy happy day. And then we had dinner at a little pizza place in Potomac with Frank and Kathy. A great way to start the week.

Bald Eagles, Big Rocks, and Other Stuff

Friday's paddle was super nice. It was just me and Jim who is new to my club but not paddling. We saw an obscene number of bald eagles. Weren't these things supposed to go extinct due to global warming, environmental poisoning, lack of toupees, something? No sir, not around here. You couldn't throw a rock and NOT hit one.

However, they are pesky hard to photograph, so you'll have to take my word for it. But here's a couple of pictures:

My new friend Jim also advised me to take this picture as well:

Thanks to Jim, everyone can now enjoy this fine photo of a 2 foot long decaying carp. Thanks Jim.

But aside from his taste in photography Jim is a swell paddler, was not put off by the rough chop in the middle of Belmont Bay, and made for a stellar paddling buddy. Again, thanks Jim.

Saturday found me paddling at Riverbend on the upper Potomac. I am nervous around rocks and unskilled at navigating teeny tiny rapids. So Riverbend is always a thrilling diversion for me. It's kind of like going to a slasher flick, only more up close and personal. Usually, as a sea kayaker, I try to avoid rocks of any kind. I am used to babying my composite boat and generally, rock always wins. But at Riverbend rocks just go with the river. It looks like this:

Oops, that's a picture of a life and death struggle we witnessed at the boat ramp while putting in. Tiny snake eats tiny fish. Then we realized the tiny snake had many many friends, some larger than others... Let's revisit that slasher flick, shall we?

But back to the river:

What a nice day! And one of my boat elders (I skipped the usual "gnarly" as she is a she, and we shes don't really appreciate being called gnarly in any sense at all) anyway she showed us "love the rock," the how and why. This was a key bit of info I will do my best to retain. Thanks to Kathy and Frank Collins for coming out to play with us and being willing to share their knowledge and wisdom.

Rock always wins; love the rock.