The Rappahannock River, Fredericksburg, Virginia

Note: More photos available on my photo main page.

If you read my previously blog, you probably wonder why I was here in Fredericksburg, Virginia, instead of my friend's new vacation home and the Adventure Sport Center near Swallow Falls in Maryland. Well, the trip got canceled at the last minute. My friend had a family issue to deal with. I am so okay with it. A family always comes first. It's tough to be a parent. And somehow it worked out beautifully for me because I had a chance to be at the American Canoe Association's Celebrate the Rapp festival in Federicksburg on Saturday and paddled on the Rappahannock River for the first time. (So no worry, Karen! We'll do it next time.)

The City Dock

So I convinced and nagged my other friend, Christine, to go to the festival with me and I agreed to see Yanni Concert at Wolf Trap with her in return.  Hey that's a spirit of compromise!  (It's an amazing concert by the way.) So here we go. One of the most fun weekend. Just like an old saying, "it's not about destination. it's about whom you travel with". I think it's so true!

A lovely house near the City Dock

We arrived around 10:30 and helped cleaning up the City Dock right away. It's done within about an hour. The parking lot was the worst. We almost screamed when we saw people started smoking when we left. The cigarette company should pay for the clean up, seriously. The area wasn't big but we picked up almost 2,000 cigarette butts according to the volunteer leader whom we ran into later that day. 

Along the road

The back of an art gallery

The pump house and the bridge over the river

I like the fact that you can access the river and see it almost at any point along Sophia Street. I didn't have a chance to explore the real downtown area but I'll try next time.

View of the railroad bridge over the Rappahannock River from the boat

Under the railroad bridge

A sketch I made later while waiting for the movie festival to start
for my 365 Day161

And here is a painting of the bridge for my 365 Day163

Such a lovely sky we had today

So now we're here for the festival.  there were a bunch of vendors, food, craft etc. The highlighted activities were the river clean-up, free 45-min paddling lessons for kayaking, canoeing and stand-up paddle (SUP), the historical river tour and Reel Paddling Film Festival which showcased nine best paddling films of year 2012. (I wrote about the film festival on the previous post. They were great! Don't forget to check it out. It's a must.) 

The festival was a bit smaller than I thought and some volunteers were not quite informed about the activities. I ended up walking around a lot between the city dock and the festival but I got to experience the town along the riverside a bit better (and took a lot of photos so who cares!). 

Based on my experience you don't need to sign up anything online for next year. Maybe with an exception of stand-up paddling class which was very popular and maybe the river tour because they had to have a boat for you. But do it early, not the night before or your name won't make it onto the list. My friend name wasn't on the SUP class.

Our guide who has been here for over 25 years

Our tour group

Paddling time! We had about 12 people at the tour group. Mr. Greg Mertz of US Park Service was our guide. The tour was about visiting the sites during Civil War. I learnt about what happened, where it took place and what the pontoon looked like! Now I want to read more about Civil War. This was a 2-hour-long tour at $5. (Oh my! It's 10 times more expensive here and we're just an hour away! Unfortunately the tour was just for this event.) 

A view during the tour. (Trust me I was listening!)

The reflection and the shadow at the boat ramp

My fav photo!

I am jealous! The boat ramps were pretty busy. 
There were boats in and out all the time.

I was caught taking a photo of their canoe.
They said I should take a photo of them instead
because they were a better view. Ha ha.
(Hope you see my post! :) )

People here were so friendly and relaxed. The pace of the town is much much slower than the city which was very nice. A lot of fishing, paddling, boating and unfortunately smoking.

After a great and relaxing dinner at Brock's Riverside Grill near the railroad bridge we strolled down back to the festival and decided to just relax at the dock while the sun was setting. Not much to say. The views were just simply lovely.

View from a dock at the park

Another favorite shot

Our dangling feet

The movie screen with a perfect auditorium-seating-like sloped area
right in front of the river.

Aww here was the best part, 2-hour-long Reel Paddling Film Festival, you just have to read about it on my previous post. I can't fit it in here! It's too good. I wish there were more people sticking around. They should show this in Reston or DC. There must be a lawn somewhere here. We have thousands of paddlers. They could make a lot more money from us. I definitely go again if they come to the area.

The last shot of the day

So that's the end. We left the town around 11 pm. Driving on I-95 was scary but we drove slowly, kept chatting and sang songs out loud to stay awake. I guess you can tell we had great time. I hope you have a chance to be here in the near future.


Until next paddling~


Note: More photos available on my photo main page.
Note 2: I am so sorry about the typo for the town name!

Fletcher's Boathouse, Washington DC (Round 2)

We've reached Chain Bridge today! :) I paddled tandem kayak for the first time with my friend. Get there early if you want the tandem because there are very limited numbers. 

Check out more photos from my photo page.

"I am touching you." - from My 365 Day 148

Mission accomplished!

Gorgeous Cloud

Ta da~

DC Playground

Lunch Table

View during Lunch

Until next paddling~

Riverbend Park, Great Falls, VA (Teaser Version)

Looking West

Check out the rest of the photos from my photo page. 

When your hobby is depending on the weather condition it could be frustrating. Today is such a gorgeous day, sunny, cool and breezy with bright blue sky and white cloud.

T_T

But we got too much water from the rain early this week so we were not allowed to be in the river.

Isn't that sad ? The river, the boats, the paddles, PFDs were right there in front of me. Oh and a snake too.

But safety comes first. I suggest call the park before you come in. :)

Anyway, I took a Rental Classification class with Riverbend Park today because Riverbend Park allows only people who participate their class or tour to rent their boats (kayaks, canoes or row boats). Since I don't own a boat, I'll do anything to be able to rent a boat. ha ha.

Canoes and row boats

Sit-on-top kayaks (Regular ones are also available.)

This was supposed to be a 30-minute class but the instructor was kind enough to extend it to over an hour just to make sure he covered the topics as much as he could since we couldn't go into water we just had class on land. (Warning: I don't recommend you to learn how to paddle just by mocking like this on land. You should to be on and in the water, feel it, work yourself around it and try to get into trouble as much as you can when your instructor is with you.)

Honestly I took two 6-hour kayak classes and still learnt new things.

After you finish this $26 class you will get a two-year rental certification signed by your instructor and a free half-day rental for this year.

You can find a rental rate from here. (Half-day rental for a single kayak is only $15!)

Looking East

In case you don't know much about this park like me Riverbend Park belongs to Fairfax County. There are trails connecting to Great Falls and I was told that it connects to the Occoquan River as well. (Search Fairfax Cross-County Trail.) I was also told that the parking is free unlike Great Falls. Oops, we'd better support the parks, right ?

My water shoes were little dry today.

Check out the rest of the photos from my photo page. I promise I'll be back here soon! Thanks for checking in. 

Have a happy and safe paddling.

Kayak Stroke Recap and Refinement

I don't know who invented all these strokes for us to learn. They definitely had plenty of time to play around! (kidding!)

Today another student and I took a kayak class with Brian from Ckapco again...(which made 3 crazy people paddling in a rain at 55'F temperature.) We recapped Sculling Draw, Draw, Sweep, Reverse (all the way), Low Brace, High Brace, Bow Rudder, Draw in Motion, Sideslip (Hanging Draw) and Stern Rudder....then the new part we learnt was mixing them up.

Eww...like it's not confusing enough already.

Image from My 365 Project - Day 113 


Like in order to make a U-turn I usually just use Sweep Stroke 3-4 times or use Forward Stroke and Reverse Stroke on each side of the boat. But there are other ways accomplish this. For example today (as shown on the image) we went forward first, then used a wide sweep stroke w/ edging, then while holding edging on the sweep side*, used Bow Rudder on the opposite side (I found my hat was in a way quite often), held the edging until the boat almost completed the turn and then used Reverse Sweep Stroke to complete**.

Oh my...@_@! It sounds confusing, doesn't it ? But do you notice that I use only 2 strokes to accomplish a U-turn ?

Mixing them together definitely forces you to observe how a boat works and how your paddling is as every little move really makes a change even just by pushing one butt cheek down while moving you can see the difference.

Now paddling is more like an art than labor to me. :) And looks like there is a lot of practice to do.

Until next paddling~

*, ** correction on 4/23/2012 (I colored the edging on the third image wrong and put the reverse sweep on the wrong side. I am so sorry!)

The Art of Making a Paddle

What always intrigues me is the way people express their passion. Some people write. Some takes photos. A combination of personal interests mixed with our own background, living environment and maybe topped with some quirky habits makes us all different. And that is such a great thing. We should celebrate the differences.

This avid canoeist makes paddles. And they are the most fancy paddles I have ever seen. (Well, I know my experience to the paddling world is kind of short.) Check out his website.

If I own one of these, I will never let it touch the water ever.

The Potamac River, Washington DC

What a lovely day to start paddling for this year (and checked off one place from my wish list of 2012!) I am very sore at the moment. Don't worry! It's good sore. This is as bad as lap swimming except I can breathe through my nose.

Not much to say. Just hope you enjoy the photos. Nothing can describe the experience. It's almost like a dream. (Maybe because I had to wake up at 6:30 on Sunday. ha ha.) If you want to paddle on the Potomac but you are still a newbie like me or don't know exactly where to go, don't know how to read the wind or the current, the river traffic pattern, how to cross a river, check out Ckapco. Mike can arrange something for you. It feels much better to have an experienced paddler with you out there.

Here is our paddling route. It's a 3-hour trip. We took off from Columbia Island Marina, went up north through the channel before hitting the Potomac River.


Starting from Columbia Island Marina




The landmarks


Raft up!


I told you. It's a gorgeous day!



Francis Scott Key Bridge


There were 3-4 more kayaks and canoes on the river today.


Kennedy Center


Look at the sky! I mean Watergate Hotel!


C&O / Rock Creek (My most favorite. It's so very cool!)


C&O Canal - Lock 1




Heading out to the Potomac


And during the first half of the route I used Jackson Journey kayak before switched the boat.

Until next paddling!