Can’t pass up a beautiful day!
last update: 08/18 @ 15:41

It was about 85 degrees and the river was about 2.95.

A lovely time to be out on the Potomac.

Again, I took my canoe, Sarah her packraft.

We ran into several classes: SUP folk and kayakers of all ages. And still we had plenty of time to play in both Maryland and Virginia chutes.

Check out Sarah surfing the Maryland chute hole!

That may not have been entirely intentional — the first time.

But we both went back several more times.

Really a nice day and nice way to let all the news and politics drain out of our minds.

Back on the River
last update: 08/12 @ 16:43

It was likely the nicest of the weekdays today: high 80s and the river just about 3.0. We ran into two kayaking classes, a raft trip and a couple SUP boaters. Crowded for a weekday :)

Today, I opted for my canoe — I have an open canoe clinic later this month and felt the need to get back in my canoe before that.

Sarah opted for her packraft.

We both had a lot of fun.

Sarah even got her packraft into both the Maryland chute hydraulic and the one on the Virginia side.

My trusty Joby Gorillapod tripod broke a leg last time out. So I picked up a less expensive option from Amazon to replace it. It’s a little bit taller and Sarah noted it’s about the size of a small selfie-stick. So we have a new view on our river trips.

I think the jury is out on which is “better;” I wonder if this post will pick up any votes one way or the other…

Got the Packrafts back out
last update: 07/14 @ 20:08

Sarah and I took out the Packrafts again.

The river was a bit lower than last time, about 3.2. So we headed up the Maryland chute (through the Calleva paddleboard class), played around a bit, and then popped out and over the rocks there.

It’s very handy to have a watercraft that crazy light :)

We paddled up a bit further then headed down the Virginia chute. The photo on the right is a little eddy above the center chute.

After playing around a bit in the Virginia chute we headed back to the Maryland chute for a few minutes before heading back home.

These packrafts remain a really fun watercraft. I need to work a bit more on my roll — I did test it out and came up, but only because I pushed off the bottom.

Comparision
last update: 06/05 @ 18:41

I can’t remember the last time I was out on the river two days in a row.

I wanted to head back to the same spot in the canoe and see how I think the two watercraft compare. (It was a little warmer today and the level down just a bit to 3.6 but very similar.)

I think I can be confident that the packrafts are unlikely to stand up to 10 years of use as well as the canoe has. I don’t see any issues with them yet but I just don’t believe they will still be river-worthy in ten years — but I’m happy to be proven wrong.

Both are really fun boats to paddle. I will admit to laughing out loud yesterday after surfing in the packraft, it was just FUN.

I feel more stable in the packraft and the benefits of two blades on the paddle make it easier to deal with swirly currents. I feel like I need to think more about what I’m doing in the canoe. I spent a long time looking at Hollywood rapid on the James the last time we visited and thinking about how I might run it in my canoe (I used to run it all the time with little thought in a kayak.) I think I’d just paddle the packraft as I used to paddle my Mirage and later Pro Jet.

And I’m confident (but don’t have experience yet) that a swim in the packraft will be a quicker recovery — it’s so much lighter and being self-bailing, won’t hold much water at all.

And I can walk normally much more quickly after getting out of the packraft than getting off my knees and out of the canoe. Obvious but worth stating: portage and getting from the car to the river and back are much easier with a ˜10 pound packraft.

I had a lot of fun in the canoe today — and ran into two other canoes playing the same spot. I’m not ready to trade one for the other.

I’ll just enjoy having great options for now :)

As promised…
last update: 06/04 @ 18:51

… I took more than one photo this time. This one is not too bad.

It was about 88 degrees, blue sky, low humidity (for DC) and the river was about 3.8.

We had fun in the Packrafts at Angler’s Inn. We paddled up the back channel and portaged just a little bit (because they are so light).

That let up paddle down the Maryland chute before playing around a bit.

I had no trouble crossing the Maryland chute hole — they are nicely stable boats.

And even got on the Virginia chute wave for a bit of surfing.

Oh, and we were butterfly buzzed.

This guy stayed with us for a little while as we recombobulated after the short portage.

New Watercraft!!!
last update: 05/29 @ 17:17

Next time we take out the packrafts, I’ll stop having fun long enough to take more than one photo. This one turned out sort of OK.

At any rate: the Christmas packrafts have seen the river now.

And they are fun to paddle.

Today was warm and surprisingly high water (about 6.2 — this is just upstream from the back channel at Anglers). But the packrafts handled the current and eddy lines well. I either almost surfed a nice wave or did surf it briefly :)

Lots more fun to come…

Christmas!!!
last update: 02/16 @ 21:42

Sarah and I tried out packrafts last summer in Seattle since they are more of a thing out west than around here.

And clearly we liked them: pretty nice paddle feel, known to do pretty well in whitewater and the real selling point: crazy light. (Perhaps at the expense of more needed maintenance and less long a working lifespan). But I felt better about longevity after talking with the guy in Seattle we rented from. He’s been happy with the boats he has; they get a fair amount of use and he’s comfortable renting them out.

So we ordered a couple for Christmas presents. They were due at the end of January. But then the snow hit…

…For the last two weeks, UPS has been saying they are loaded on truck every morning, out for delivery and then delayed by weather.

Alexandria’s streets have been pretty fine for at least the last week so we’re not sure what the hold up was. But now, they are here.

And we just need to patient for some nicer boating weather so we can get them out of the living room :)

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