Trip Report: South Fork, Shenandoah River
A couple group members recently needeled me for not filing trip reports, but seeing as I'm in Virginia most of the time, I didn't figure anything but my Utah excursions would be worth mentioning. But what the heck:
Sunday, South Fork, Shenandoah River, Port Republic to Island Ford. River running just over 1,300 cfs. Nice easy flow. The day was gorgeous with skies almost the quality of Utah's "severe clear." My wife and I only saw one other group, a club called "Church of the Blue Dome."
We encountered stretches of flat moving water, to class 1-1.5 rapids -- mostly ledges and rock gardens. The river smelled soooo damn good.
We passed the remains of the Lynville Dam(n), which was dynamited three years ago. What a wonderful sight, to see the river released from that god-awful confinement.
Spotted a bald eagle, several ospreys, two blue heron, a few kingfishers, numerous mergansers, plovers, mallards, Canada geese, and other assorted ducks. The trip was lazy and serene, lasted about 4 hours. We decided to take my Mom's old 14' Grumman canoe and float tandem rather than use the whitewater boats.
Also, had a chance to use my "standing" paddle for the first time. It's really long (like 6.5'), and allows a good leg stretch and a chance to read the river much farther out. Back in the day, the Red Cross used to administer canoe certification, and would teach and allow standing styles. Now the ACA does certification, and will not recognize standing strokes. Would be a shame to see that paddling stlye (plus poling) leave the lexicon -- but there will always be a few luddites I suppose to keep it alive.
OK -- that takes care of my paperwoirk requirement, right...?
