The summer heat finally faded away and yielded some brisk fall temperatures over the past few days. John and I boated the Falls at the lowest level to date, 2.43 on Saturday evening. To our suprise, everything was still good to go, and there were a few new interesting lines that opened up. At this level the run resembles a low volume creek, with flow volume hovering around 550 cubic feet per second. John tried a river left boof through the 'Notch' threading the needle between the curtain of the waterfall and the rock in the landing zone. The sunlight lit the face of the falls in magic brilliance before the sun disappeared behind the trees. We continued down and decided to boat the rest of Mather Gorge, stash our boats, and run the three miles back to our cars by way of the 'Billy Goat' trail. Running the 'Billy Goat' trail is my new favorite full body workout. It involves bounding from rock to rock, using your arms to pull yourselves through several scrambles, constant changes in speed, and intense focus so you do not destroy your ankles or worse. We both had a great sweat going by the time we were finished.
We headed out to the falls again on Sunday evening. John and I met up with Andy Maser and Dave Hoffman, visiting from Oregon and spending a few days in town showing a few kayak films at several local venues. Andy and Dave both grew up boating the Potomac, and were excited to get a few laps in on their old staple run. The run felt a lot higher as headed down toward the lip of Pummel, especially compared to yesterday. John thought the level was 2.51, but when we got to the lip of Pummel it definitely looked like you could run the boof on river right. We got out and took a look. The 'Notch' looked a lot beefier than the day before and the big curler before the main drop was back in play. We watched as Andy fired up his first line with a sik wave wheel. We hopped in our boats and headed down. My first line went well. I got out of my boat and took a few pics and headed up for round two. Shannon's parents were in town visiting for the day and they were watching from the observation deck. I waved from the rock and got in my boat. As I made my left I turned my boat too early and hit the big fan in the middle of the river. I was heading toward the drop sideways, but took a big right stroke at the last second as I passed through the curler, boofed hard right and landed at the base of the waterfall facing the curtain. It started pulling me back in, so I took some quick deep strokes, and backpaddled out around the guard rock. It ended up going well, but it was not what I intended to do before I headed down.
We all boated a few more lines on the main boof at 'Pummel'. It was suprisingly padded out, and now I was really wondering if the level was 2.51. We paddled down through 'Mather Gorge' again, but this time we jogged back on the Canal trail. It was a much easier run, and a great way to end a beautiful day. The days are getting noticeably shorter, so it will be harder to squeeze in evening runs this week. I checked the level of the Potomac when I got home and it was 2.56. Certaily not 'high' by any stretch, but much higher than we thought, and it was the highest I had run the 'Notch'. As the weather changes, I can feel the untroubled days of fall begin to settle in.
The summer heat finally faded away and yielded some brisk fall temperatures over the past few days. John and I boated the Falls at the lowest level to date, 2.43 on Saturday evening. To our suprise, everything was still good to go, and there were a few new interesting lines that opened up. At this level the run resembles a low volume creek, with flow volume hovering around 550 cubic feet per second. John tried a river left boof through the 'Notch' threading the needle between the curtain of the waterfall and the rock in the landing zone. The sunlight lit the face of the falls in magic brilliance before the sun disappeared behind the trees. We continued down and decided to boat the rest of Mather Gorge, stash our boats, and run the three miles back to our cars by way of the 'Billy Goat' trail. Running the 'Billy Goat' trail is my new favorite full body workout. It involves bounding from rock to rock, using your arms to pull yourselves through several scrambles, constant changes in speed, and intense focus so you do not destroy your ankles or worse. We both had a great sweat going by the time we were finished.
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