News and Updates

Comparision

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…

… 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.

Lyle Lovett

Finishing out Sarah’s birthday month, we headed to The Birchmere to see Lyle Lovett last night.

It was great fun and a good show with some new to us music along with some old favorites.

And we had a small world experience:

We joined a couple in the waiting area (outside the main music hall) while we waited for our number to called to find a seat in the main hall. (At the Birchmere, it’s open seating; you show up and get a number before the main doors open, then get to find a seat (all are good) when your number is called.)

It turns out they live in Fort Hunt and know Tom and Emily and Ken and Nancy from the swim team the kids all swam on.

We were about 25 spaces ahead of them in the seating order (A73 vs. B00). But just after we ordered dinner in the main hall, they sat down at our table to join us again.

They also tend to go left after they get into the music hall :)

A fun evening and good pre-show conversation.

Bridge update

Time for a construction update.

This is the second weekend of work closing down King Street and working overnight.

The first weekend, they cut out a section of track 3 (closest to our house) and added some supports below it before putting it back.

This weekend, it’s track 2 (currently in the middle — the eventual outcome will be 4, rather than 3 tracks). I didn’t look closely enough last time to see but they are doing similar work over both King and Commonwealth this time.

Clearly, they have a lot of faith in the switches north and south of us to keep trains off the interrupted tracks.

I invested another $2 to get up on the metro platform for a better view, and happened to be there as they moved another steel section into place to bang it into the ground.

They use what I call a jiggler on the three sided pieces and then get out the pile driver for the round posts.

Sarah and I wish the pile drive beat was a bit faster sometimes — it’s too slow for I’ve been working on the railroad.

I’m sure I’ll get tired of checking what they are up to and guessing what will come next. But I’m not there yet. (I wouldn’t mind quieter construction, of course.)

And they seemed to mismark the detour yesterday; we had a lot of traffic going the wrong way down Sunset but no accidents we’re aware of.

Panzer

It’s been a while since I posted a Panzer photo.

Clearly it’s time to show him off again.

And this offers proof he is awake and alert sometimes between naps.

New Watercraft!!!

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…

Happy Birthday!!!

Fun Day Yesterday!

The Mets were playing the Nationals here on Sarah’s birthday, so, of course we went to go watch.

And we got there early enough to catch all four racing presidents for photos.

(Abe won the race during the game.)

And most importantly: The Mets Won!

In a 2 to 1 nail biter — the Nats almost tied it up in the bottom of the 9th.

We went from mid to high 90s early in the week down to 60s yesterday and it was threatening to rain.

But the rain held off and by not going into overtime, we didn’t feel the need to retreat inside to warm up (it was nice to have that open in our back pockets).

Metro treated us well (as expected) with easy trips in and out of DC. I’m sure it helped being a 4pm start on a weekday — you can see it was sparsely attended.

We’ll get back to Los Tios at some point for the sombrero hat celebration, but Uncle Joe’s had a nice Chocolate Mouse Cake. And they were happy to give us a candle as well.

While Los Tios is not yet scheduled, we do have tickets to see Lyle Lovett at the Birchmere in a few more days.

It’s Sarah Celebration Month!

May is always fun to look forward to (the wedding last week was an extra bonus).

Back from a Great Wedding

We had a great time helping celebrate John and Grace’s wedding. And took advantage of our free time to enjoy some of the sights on the way to and from Brant Lake, NY.

One of those sights: Sarah Street in Stroudsburg, PA.

More photos in the trips section.

Picture Perfect Day

The river was just about 3.0, low for spring but I was quite happy with it. I was a bit busier than expected this morning, but really glad I jumped at the chance to get out.

Friday afternoon, no problem with parking, few other folks out — I did see a couple SUPs and a couple kayaks — and 75 degrees with sunny skies.

This is the Maryland Chute. If I’d been less busy in the morning, I would have paddled up the gorge. Next time.

I remain a huge fan of retirement!

Closing King Street

Last night started the first of three weekends we’ve been warned of when the are closing down the street for the bridge construction.

I went to go take a peek just as the drizzle came in.

Clearly, they are getting ready for substantial work — and that getting ready requires a lot of standing around.

For this weekend, King Street is closed, Commonwealth will come later. And they promise to keep Sunset Drive open for local traffic.

Glad we’re not due to be trapped on the street.

The plans I’ve seen talk about two year, so it will be interesting to see what all get’s done this weekend.

Also, I’m curious how Monday’s rush hour goes: they plan to keep King Street closed through 10pm Monday. That’s going to be rough.