By Larry Lempert:
On a very spur-of-the-moment decision in the wake of Tropical Storm Isaias, which dumped 3.25 inches in McLean the night before, Grant Justin and I caught Cabin John on Tues. 8/4. What a delight to be back on a small creek! As for the correlation gauge:
Putting in at River Rd 3:00 pm Northwest Branch at Colesville 309 cfs (=264 cfs on Cabin John)
Taking out at C&O Aqueduct 4:00 pm Northwest Branch at Colesville 217 cfs
We didn't have much water to spare--a few inches above bare minimum at the shallowest parts. At least as encountered yesterday, if NW Branch had been much lower when we started, the Cabin John run would have been too scrapy. Of course, it's certainly better to consider NW Branch than Rock Creek, the latter being what AW does. Someone looking at AW yesterday would have concluded that Cabin John was runnable but very high, very misleading.
Several kayakers had just finished when we got there.
There were 3 strainers: a riverwide log about halfway down that we were able to step-and-drag over; a very large multi-tree riverwide blockage a little later that we portaged on the right; and somewhat further on, an almost riverwide downed tree that we were able to just barely sneak around on the far left--but the sneak put us into the creek's biggest rapid requiring an immediate twist to the left over a 3- to 4-foot drop, a tricky Cl III move on an otherwise idyllic II day. All 3 of these obstructions were easily visible well in advance, with slow water as we approached, so no danger of being caught unawares.
We took out just before the C&O Canal on river left, and Grant quickly walked back via trail to get his car, which we'd left at the little lot on the east side of the one-lane bridge on MacArthur over Cabin John Creek. (Also good for parking: Cabin John Local Park, just west of the one-lane bridge.) The only unpleasantness at all was taking out--a rocky, difficult, although short, drag from the creek steeply up to the trail, but then an easy, short carry to the gravel spot along Clara Barton. If Grant hadn't done the lion's share of the work, I would have had trouble with my open boat on that initial drag up to the trail.
I think the key to catching Cabin John is making sure it's stopped rising, and then getting out there pretty quickly as the decline is likely to be fast unless there have been many days of heavy rain. On Aug. 4 NW Branch peaked at 10:15 am at 1,390 cfs. (NW Branch = 21 sq mi; CJC = 18 sq mi)