Anacostia, Northwest Branch

From the Luke Hopkins page:

http://www.theblurr.com/news.php?numshow=8&limit=16

From there we drove only a few exits away to the Colesville exit on route 29 and headed north. After about a mile, 29 will cross a creek, which is the North Branch of the Anacostia River. Once crossing the river, park in the parking lot on the right. This is the put-in and take-out for a really fun run that is a section of the North Branch called the Colesville Crusher. From the parking lot you can walk upstream and cross back over route 29 with your boat and continue upstream for another 100 yards or so.

This is the best part, here you can put in above the world easiest 20-foot high drop. Check out the video of this drop below, 'PutInDrop'. The drop is about 60 feet wide and is a man made dam that has a lip at the bottom that kicks you out and you will ski across the pool. Greg even ran the drop backwards. We ran the drop a number of times and it was really fun to say the least. After that drop the river goes under the rt. 29 bridge. The next drop is about a 100 yards past the bridge and is about 6 feet tall, and is probably best run on the left. Following that drop about 100 yards further down stream is the pinnacle of the Colesville Crusher run and is the only class V+ rapid. The rapid is about 50 yards long and starts with entrance splish splash and then a 4-5 foot ledge, which is then followed by a another ledge that is a couple of feet, and then the big squeeze move. This is where I got worked and Greg got pin balled. The level on the USGS North Branch gauge on the Anacostia was 2.0 feet.

The river necks down and drops about 10 feet through a slot that at the bottom and is only about 2 feet wide. I went down first and probed the right line. Half way down the drop I hit the main seam in the slot and mystery moved (disappeared) and came up at the bottom upside down. It wasn't over yet because then I hit the wall just down stream which the whole river plows into and got stuck there for a second. Then I came off that and rolled up. Pretty much I got a marginal crushing. After seeing that line Greg ran the rapid a little left of the seam that got me and deflected off a rock under the surface on the right and then soared over and deflected off the wall on the right, and then landed at the bottom. His line was like a pinball and probably was the best line possible. The video below called 'Colesville Crux' show my beating and Greg getting pin balled by the walls.

The last rapid we ran was a sweet 5-6 foot boof with a shallow landing. It was a fun rapid also. If you live in the DC area and the creeks are running this is fun place to paddle and the put-in water fall/dam is like an amusement park.