Our group of ight met at Lock 10 (some at Anglers) at 6:00 for an exciting trip down a low-water (3.07 ft) Potomac. Gus, Barb, Alan (OC), Vanessa Crow, Kyle Harris, Logan Hoffman (packraft), John Sunda (OC), and I. We were waterborne by 7:00 - forewent the Chutes - maybe as the days get longer? - and headed down Offutts Rapid - still running - and over to Yellow Falls. While playing at the Run-Around Rock on river left, one of us flipped but washed out. Next, at Stubblefield - Gus, pursuing a solo route through the big rock-garden on the left, got caught sideways and eventually self-rescued as the rest of us tried to reach them (ugh) by foot.
We decided against retrieving the paddle as the dusk was advancing and came out at Lock 10 in near darkness. Some young outdoorsmen with blessed lanterns helped us up the bank and the path to our cars - a most welcome ending to an adventurous day.
We are discussing lessons learned from our experiences and will work them into our trip coordinator training.
ADDENDUM - On 14 June Gus received a call from a gent over in Cabin John Village who had picked up the paddle on the river. Gus collected it from the man's front porch, so did not get to debrief him about how the retrieval happened.