There was quite the collection of craft on today’s Sunday trip to the Lower Antietam. In K1s we had Wayne M, Toni B, Diane H and Dmitry D. In a rec boat we had Bob Brown. Lynne Carpenter was in town from CO and paddled her pack raft. Dana V and Doug G were in a tandem duckie (something you don’t see very often)! Our largest contingent was in OC1s (yeah!): Ginny and Gary Quam, Henrik vO and your faithful scribe and trip “coordinator”. I was worried about parking at the Rte. 34 put in so we had a 1000 am rendezvous at the Harper’s Ferry Road bridge takeout . The water level was 307 cfs against a CZ of 150, so plenty of water. The air temp was in the mid to upper 70s eventually. So it was a beautiful day. There were at least two muskrat sightings (or rather someone claimed to see a nose) and a mother duck and her brood. We had two swims: one due to a rock and one due to someone trying to surf which became side surfing which became…. Well you can imagine what happened then.
Other items of note: At the put in there is an island. You want to go to the left. The channel to the right appears clear but there is a large tree at the bottom. The drive into the parking lot at Rte. 34 is even steeper and more rutted than ever. Be careful and go slow or park along the road. More folks were parking along the right(northward shoulder). And finally most importantly Nutters Ice Cream shop was closed. ☹ The sign said “Open for Take out only at 2:00” pm but they were closed at 2:10.
All in all a great day on the river among great folks.
TTT