About the Sunday Paddles - (rev. 20 Sept 2023) Meet at Pennyfield Parking at 9:30 or the time stated in the posting on the CCA Calendar. Leave cars and shuttle boats up to Rileys Lock to put in to Seneca Creek. Cross the Potomac, enter the GW Canal, return to cars at Pennyfield, a mile below the GWC. Sign up for Sunday trips - see bottom of the page.
[We used to meet at Violettes Lock parking (5 miles up River Rd from Potomac, MD) at 9:00, cross the Potomac to run down the old George Washington Canal (GWC) on the Virginia side. We then paddled across the Po to Blockhouse Point/ Mile 21 on the C&O Canal, returning up to our cars at VL parking.] This is a beginner level whitewater run (Class I-2) that we run from 1 April to 1 Nov. We help new paddlers down moving water and may work on simple skills like water reading, eddy turns, and paddle group dynamics.
This trip "the Loop" is due to two CCA achievements: Backing off the Coast Guard blocking the river for Trump's weekend golfing and prevailing upon the C&O Canal to rewater the Pennyfield to Violettes section in mid-2019 and again in 2020 - and in 2021 to improve their system to notify boaters.
In 2020's covid era, we paddled mainly on this loop, but also up Seneca Creek, the Golfcourse Rapid on Goose Creek, and the "Interstate" from the bottom of Goose Creek over to Edwards Ferry and back. In 2021 - with brief shuttles - Goose Creek and Seneca down from Dawsonville gauge became possible. We also run down the Potomac "Seneca Breaks" from Violettes.
Questions? Ask Wayne McDaniel (macinmd1@gmail.com), Tim Tilson (HMSLydia@msn.com), Peter Ryan (mozartk299@gmail.com), Pam White (white.pamela@gmail.com), and Gary Quam (GQuam64@gmail.com)
NB: In late summer, the C&O Canal used to become too low or clogged with river grass, so we had to revert to meeting at the downstream Pennyfield Lock and set up a car shuttle. In 2019, 2020, and 2021 we got the Canal Park to raise the water level so the grass did not impede. In 2021 and 2022 the canal grass did not appear.
Any change in meeting place or time will be posted on the CCA Trip Schedule. If you'd like to be on the Sunday Paddles mailing list (ca 150 people), please write to trips@canoecruisers.org and specify Sunday Paddles. This list allows us to notify our regulars when we're canceling because of high water, foul weather, - or going on a different trip (think Seneca Creek, Anglers to Lock 10, Goose Creek, Antietam, Virginia Catoctin, etc.)
The picture below is of surfing on the Ledge, the GW Canal's most significant (and friendly) rapid.
See https://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River/detail/id/739/ for details of this delightful section of the Potomac River.
