Potomac

Subject: Record high run on Potomac above DC - Sunday 1/21/96

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Newsgroups: rec.boats.paddle

Date: 1996/01/22

TRIP REPORT: date - 1/21/96; level - 19.31' at Little Falls gauge; put-in:

Bear Island 200 yards above jumping cliffs in Mather Gorge; take-out -

Lock 10 on C&O Canal; difficulty - if you believe in runnable class 6,

this was it, baby!!

Sunday saw the highest known run ever down the Potomac Gorge, surpassing

the 1985 run at 18.3' by Davey (the resistor) Hearn et al. We put in at

about 1:15 pm, just as the river crested. The Little Falls gauge was

confirmed at 19.31' at 1:00 pm. We estimate the cfs at 375,000, which is

extrapolated from data supplied by the Army Corps of Engineers for 1985

flood. I tried to get confirmation from the Corps for yesterday's cfs, but

without success so far.

The water was indescribably monstrous and chaotic. I led out of the put-in

eddy, and as I was crossing the boil zone towards the shear line, I was

attacked by a massive moving hydraulic about 8' high. It pulled me

completely underwater for 3 or 4 seconds before dissipating and letting me

go. We all realized very quickly that a blown skirt might be fatal.

The main action was at the rapid named Jumps, which started about 200

yards down from the put-in and continued for 1/2 mile. This rapid occurs

in a spot which is normally placid flatwater. I believe it was named by

the 1985 crew, who were the first to discover it. It is named after an

area popular for it's 50' cliff jumps down into the river. The tops of

these cliffs were probably 15-20 feet underwater yesterday.

Jumps is formed from an interesting hydrological phenomenon wherein Mather

Gorge fills in to the brim (about 60' above the height of the average flow

of 7,000 cfs) and virtually dams up Great Falls, which is about 1.5 miles

upstream of this point at the top of Mather Gorge. As a result, Great

Falls flattens out to some extent, and the drop which normally occurs at

Great Falls (about 60 vertical feet) is delayed as the incredible

funneling pressure of the relatively narrow, sheer-walled Mather Gorge

keeps the river elevated. Only when the vertical walls give way to a

less-steep, rocky valley does the river get to madly eject itself from

this bottleneck.

This sight, the Jumps, is one of the most awesome spectacles of nature

I've ever beheld. Hundred of thousands of cfs tumble wildly out of the

gorge through giant boils and folds in a state of mad chaos. Riding

through this involved going from one envelopment to another. The wave tops

periodically broke into temporary, truck-sized hydraulics. But each of us

only got nailed by two or three of these during the worst part of their

cycles. There was some debris and a few trees, but it was not an

overriding concern, and no one was hit by any debris.

At low water there is a 45' high mound of rocks on the center left here,

sort of a high-water island. Yesterday this rock was well under water and

formed a massive 25' high continuous hydraulic (it was here that Kirk's

boat was smashed back in '85). This hole was maybe 50 yards wide, and

extended 50 more yards into a wave on either side. It was easy to miss

this beast, but it was somewhat unsettling to go by it on the shoulder of

the wave extension.

Below Jumps, the river normally makes a 90 degree left turn below Madeira

School towards Angler's Inn put-in, then turns back to the right.

Yesterday the river cut this corner, with less than 40% of the water going

down the existing river channel. There were two major channels, one to the

right of Skull Island, and another of similar size to the right of it

(into the area of Black Pond). The rapids in here, which we were not

expecting, were nearly as intense as Jumps, but much shorter. I hit just

two massive waves, one of which broke on me.

Of the four in our group, two emerged from all of this unscathed (myself

included), one swam and was pulled out by us, and the fourth disappeared.

Later, after a lot of worrying and some soul searching, we found him safe

at home. He had apparently engaged some trees at the bottom of the Black

Pond channel, lost his gear, and swam to shore. He hiked up the Difficult

Run Creek drainage to the nearest house, and the homeowner drove him back

across the river to his home in Cabin John, MD.

This trip was of course the experience of a lifetime. While we all agreed

that we would probably not do this again, it was exhilirating beyond

belief. Perhaps one or two in our party should not have gone or perhaps we

all made sound decisions. We certainly knew the risks and we knew some

elements were not in our control (a branch poking through your spray

skirt, or a tree in the hole with you). We had some 50 years of paddling

experience between the 4 of us, mostly in these waters. Our weakest member

had 5 years experience. No one was pressured to put in.

We planned the trip carefully to avoid contact with authorities using

alternate parking and access points and other measures. We luckily did not

see authorities (other than helicopters) en route to the put-in, nor did

we see any signs indicating that the river was closed. It was, apparently,

but we did not know this. We understood that Park Police or Rangers would

have no choice but to turn us back (what are they going to say, 'oh, yeah

anything under 400,000 cfs is perfectly safe, go right ahead'), so we

avoided contact.

The whole question of river 'closure' has already provoked some debate on

this newsgroup in connection with Davey (the resistor) Hearn's arrest and

TV interview on Channel 9 last night. And it will probably continue to get

a lot of attention. We are grateful that we did not get tripped up by this

problem and were able to make the decision to go or not go purely based on

our scouting. We did talk to several fireman, county police, park police,

and rangers at the Lock 10 take-out, but they were quite civil with us and

did not accuse us of being insane. They just said get out and we did, as

our run was over - thankfully!

Paul Schelp

1/22/96