Kim Buttleman
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8/17/2018 4:02 PM
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by Jenny Thomas,
It was a small group of four on the Lower Gunpowder on Thursday. Three kayaks (Tony A., David C., and Jenny T) and one lone OC-1, Kim B. The level was a very pleasant and fun 9 inches on the bridge gauge. The virtual gauge was right at about 600 cfs.
Kim and I had only run the Lower Gunpowder in recent history once and didn't remember much about it. David had never run it before and so the on-river leadership fell to Tony, a regular in these parts. We were pleasantly surprised with the numerous fun rapids and noodled our way at a relaxed pace. We probably spent a total of 4 hours on the river. We were the only people out there, except a few groups of waders and swimmers we encountered along the way.
The traditional take-out at the end of the whitewater run is closed. Our take-out was at Mariner Point State Park, which means we paddled 2 1/2 to 3 miles through the tidal portion of the Lower Gunpowder crossing over to the Little Gunpowder (see Larry Lempert's trip report from earlier this month to get a great description of how to get to the take-out). Larry's description was spot on, but we chose not to take the immediate right from the left channel just after the island so there was some wandering around that occurred. Of great importance, should you take this route, is to check the tide to make sure you are on an 'outgoing' rather than an 'incoming' tide. We were on the former. An incoming tide would be no fun, like attaining for three miles. Tony joined us today mostly to explore this take-out option. On the whole, the group wasn't that excited about the additional flatwater mileage (perhaps because of our extra wandering) even though the scenery and birds were great (lots of busy ospreys). It would have been fun to run the whitewater section twice, checking out different routes through the rapids. All in all, it was a great way to spend a hot, summer day.
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