On the way back to the airport from Shenandoah there was a little extra time before I needed to check in and so decided to pop into another national park: Great Falls of the Potomac. East coast national parks are cute: this one was a little over one square mile in total so there should be time to see it. Keith mentioned it as a place to check out and that it was the hardest, most intimidating kayak run he had done. I had seen pictures. However when I showed up I was not prepared for what I saw. The very sizable storm that had just cleared had pumped the river up from its background of 10000 cfs up to 160000 cfs, and I arrived right at the peak! Rather than the intricate network of small falls, channels, and sculpted bedrock I saw a frothy, fast moving conveyor featuring some of the biggest hydraulics I have ever seen. Whole trees floated by. The sound was deafening. The smell was of a forest being reamed out (loam). The sight was spectacular and impressive. I walked to all three of the viewpoints- admiring the raw force for its beauty...and challenge. At normal kayaking flows the Great Falls are one of the stoutest and most committing Class V rapids around with many different channels and variations possible. At the flood stage I observed entire islands became submerged to create the biggest holes I had ever seen. I spent as much time as I could studying the water from a packrafter's point of view. I saw one line (river right at top, down a ridge, ideally gaining enough speed and luck to burst through a nasty recirculating lateral, then pull hard for river middle) that I thought I would maybe have a 50-50 chance at taking on. All other lines I saw I would have given myself a zero percent chance of emerging upright and without swallowing a lot of loamy water. Checking out the video above and the two identical views below really help highlight the incredible force of the flood. After power walking viewpoint to viewpoint and spending precious minutes at each, a half hour passed and it was time to run off to the airport.
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