Trip Reports

                                         9 October 2024

Barb, Miki, and I met at Violettes Lock tonight for our Wednesday evening paddle. The river has changed. Your National Park Service is removing the big tangle of logs in the feeder canal above the river lock and the wing dam. Looks like they will have it cleared in another day. High water has created new log jams in the Sugarland Run-GW Canal loop itself: a big one about 200 yards down into the run, extending from the left bank, passable on the right. I think this is where the last strainer was. And a second jam 100 yards further on, also runnable to the right. Below Diagonal Rapid, access to the right channel, (down to Jacuzzi--the old run for many of us) is again closed off. There may be access further to the right. We went left. Finally, the water level in the C&O Canal is down slightly so the branches dropped in the water by a storm a few months ago are now more of a nuisance.

We ran the GW Canal loop instead of the main stem of the river because Barb was curious about the rescue of ten (!!!) paddlers last Sunday afternoon including extraction of four by helicopter. Clue one was two feet of the tip of a burgundy rec kayak pointing skyward from the first new log jam. The boat was embedded in the tangle, not just hung up on the upstream side and we couldn’t figure out what happened. At the fork between right and center streams below Diagonal Rapid, we came on another boat lodged under a tree trunk. Formerly it was a green Coleman canoe. It now looks like a failed ursine origami project. There were three other rec kayaks pulled up on the upstream end of the island separating the far right and middle channels. It seemed like they had been abandoned there.

Mrs Google tells me that the Beech Island where the boaters were stranded is the island on river left while paddling the middle channel. They may not have been in danger there but without boats, they were stranded. The river was up over the weekend with the Little Falls gauge at roughly 4.5’ and their run was studded with new hazards from the debris deposited by the high water last week (6.38’). It feels lucky that no one was seriously hurt. Many thanks to the rescue people who resolved the problems. Our world would be a different place today if paddlers had drowned out there.

The rest of the paddle was wonderful as always. The two eagles were sitting in their snag just below the dam. The setting sun was glorious in the clear air and the river reflected the silver and gold sky. The evenings are getting short as we move deeper into fall so we finished our run down the river by the waxing light of a crescent moon and the evening star, paddling east into a Belt of Venus. We returned up the canal as the stars emerged. As it gets colder, it feels like we will only have the katydids and tree crickets singing for a short time.

Brief addition, I had a look and the right channel is indeed closed off with woody debris. And there is a third pinned boat, another green canoe.

Since Halloween is close, it might serve as a warning to others if someone were to buy a skeleton, put it in a life jacket, and wedge it into a pinned boat. Just an idea.

CONTACT WITH THE 10-PERSON GROUP and RESCUE AUTHORITIES -

In the days and weeks since the accident, Gary Steinberg and I have made contact with the Cabin John Rescue, and the Fairfax County Rescue folks, and with a member of the shipwrecked group, consisting of new paddlers attending a local college. We've told them that we are interested in finding out how so many people came to grief - in the hope of getting out information to similar groups about avoiding the GWC and Seneca Breaks at high water (again, it was 4.5 ft) and about the constant changes in the log situation in the GWC. Not to mention when the C&O Canal might be dry. We have not yet spoken with someone from the group who could describe what happened in detail. A gent called Mark Sommerfield pulled out a couple of their kayaks and was seeking to notify the owners on Oct 7 (Potomac Paddlers Facebook) (noon, Fri, 25 Oct)



At 3:15 on Fri, 25 Oct I was contacted by a knowledgeable member of the group, who told of what happened from his point of view. Although he did not know the nomenclature for features like Surfers Ledge and Diagonal Rapid, it appeared that they were heli-lifted from the pool below Diagonal and taken to a helipad near Trump's golf course. Nobody was hurt. They were then taken to Riley's Lock, whence they Ubered back to their put-in at Pennyfield parking, where they recovered their vehicles. I told him that Mr Sommerfield had some of his kayaks - and told him about Potomac Paddlers Facebook and the CCA's Fb account and where to read this account on the Club Website. We will work out getting his minor goods back to him later.