Spout Run,

Gauge Information

Name	Range	Updated	Level
FOURMILE RUN AT ALEXANDRIA, VA	800 - 5000 cfs	01h05m	6.4 cfs (rc= -0.2 )

River Description

This is a dirty one. If people are still running Rock Creek in DC then this is still good to go, but the water quality isn't great. The whitewater is worth it, just don't plan on flipping.

Spout Run drains Lion Village and its neighborhoods. It emerges from beneath the streets to fall towards the Potomac, directly under Interstate 66. Its delta is just above Key Bridge, almost directly across from Georgetown in DC.

The run consists of continious fast pace class II and then the bottom drops out for nearly 60 feet in the last 150 yards. At this point it goes under two bridges on the George Washington Parkway. The bottom part of Spout Run defines manky class 5. The streambed is constantly changing and shifting. There is quite a bit of debris, rebar and wood in the streambed. Part of the road washed into the stream during a flood in 2002.

Spout Run is located right on the Spout Run exit off of the GW Parkway heading North towards I-495 away from Washington. The best put-in is directly under I-66 and you can park at the end of the condominum parking lots over the river right bank as Spout Run comes out of the tunnel. The tricky part is getting back to the put-in after a run.

There are no trails back to the put-in unless you walk back on the Spout Run GW parkway exit which is a bit sketchy to say the least. To get in a run you are looking for at least a hard 2 inchs of rain. Spout Run doesn't hold its water long after it stops raining so you've got to be spontanious. I would say it wouldn't hold more then an hour with a good flow after the rain starts. I believe I am the only one to have run this creek, please correct me if I am wrong. I have only run it twice, begining in 2002.

This is the first of all the VA creeks coming down off of the Piedmont Platue going into the Potomac. Begining with Spout Run and then in order to Wendy Run, Donaldson Run, Golf Branch, Pimmit Run, Turkey Run, Dead Run, Scott's Run, and Difficult Run. This is almost every major hollow from DC to Great Falls, all of which are runnable and some are included on this AWA database.