I slid into my kayak with a cold discomfort. The plastic felt stiff and reluctant to welcome me. The snow drifted through the craggy cliffs sticking like whitewash to fencepost. It was getting dark. There was nothing of particular difficulty I was about to attempt, at least from a technical stand point. The nature of the Potomac River changes dramatically with a tenth of a difference on the gauge. There is always an element of suprise.
I paddled past the ancient indian petroglyph that sat beneath the fish ladder. A heron drifted through the snow like a great blue orb looking for shelter. The air was silent. The kind of blissful silence, oh so welcome, in the early moments of a snowstorm when the flakes just begin to cover familiar ground, transforming it into an irradiant white. There is a solemness in those moments that seems to call all things to rest.
The mighty Po tumbled through the Mather Gorge creating a maelstrom of whitewater as it crashed through S-turn rapid. I could barely see in front of me, the flakes continually clung to my retina. Capability is sometimes not the question to ask. Besides, it was not what this adventure was about. This adventure was about silence. I turned around and drifted through a back gorge, only the sound of my paddle dipping into the icy black cauldron below.
I was amazed by the force of the eddy line as I entered the main waters of the gorge. It was difficult paddling and I was fighting darkness. The soft glow of lights from Madeira School sat quietly in the distance, the only signal of a human world. It is a wonderful experience, an adventure in and of itself, to create a world of escape, a mere fourteen miles from the nation's capital.
I drifted down center chute and around the bend. I was almost to Angler's Inn. I paddled swiftly with determination. The air felt soft, despite the biting cold, almost surreal as I drifted along in my beloved world of silence. I declared myself a pirate of dark waters as I rounded the final bend and paddled for shore.
I hit the snowy beach, in the welcome company of friends. They spoke. My silence was gone.
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