Appomattox

this was a fun summer time run. I have a friend that lives in Petersburg and the take out is right near his house so it was an easy run for us. The first part of this run is real calm and a good place to have some brews, fish or whatever....It didn't seem too shallow in any spots and we just cruised for about two hours.....the river picks up some with some mild rapids further downstream but as stated above becomes frustrating with several dams that have to be portaged......seemed like our portage spots were all river left for anyone travelling without people that have done this run before......the best spot on this run is the pipeline rapid at the end which is river right (maybe an old canal?) with a sharp 90 degree left as the last section of rapid......we hadn't seen anyone all day but when we shot out of the end of this rapid there were police everywhere! Apparently a guy had drowned swimming in the river or something and his body was floating face down on the opposite bank! Pretty gruesome but makes for a good story.....now after that rapid there seem to be some good jumping rocks if you want to swim...I have heard the river (which gets very narrow at this point) is almost 45 ft deep!!! at the bridge....most of the jumping rocks seem to be upstream from the bridge but I would be very careful as I have heard that several people have drowned here from a whirlpool under the bridge. Thats why I mentioned the rocks upstream as it seems a little less sketchy and still quite deep.....use caution as people have died jumping from the bridge.....At the end of the run it is easy to visuaize how prominent Petersburg once was from all of the old factories and abandon buildings.....rumor is the City will dredge downstream from here to establish a city dock for travellers from the Chesapeake so it may be a revival area soon!