Little Patuxent River, Columbia to Savage
December 14, 2002. By Chip Walsh, contact chipwalsh at comcast
net
Paddlers:
Rick Roberts in a Prijon Rockit, K1, and me in a Mad River Fantasy,
OC1.
Water:
Roughly 500 cfs on the Savage Gauge. Guilford Road, stick gauge
was reading 4.1 at about noon. This gauge does not appear to correlate
with the reading of the Guilford Gauge that USGS publishes to the real time
gauge web page, which was about 3.6 at the time. Later, as we came
to the gauge on our way down the river, it was reading 3.9. We would
have liked a few more inches of water. At numerous points on this paddle,
we could see recent high-water marks, about a foot and half to two feet
higher above the current water surface. My guess is that these occurred
several days prior, when the flow peaked around 1100 cfs.
The Trip:
The Little Patuxent is very little where Rick Roberts and I put in,
at South Entrance Road in Columbia. One has to wonder how much further
up the river it would be considered canoeable. That's South Entrance
Road pictured at right, with the three tubes of water. We put on here
about quarter past noon.
Most of the first few miles was fairly flat, but with a a roiling current.
Downed trees were the major challenges. But there were not as many
strainers as I expected on a stream this small. We encountered ten
strainers that made us get out of the boats, probably another ten that we
were able to bump across or slide under, and a whole bunch that could be paddled
around. Every so often there were clusters of two or three rock outcroppings
to make an interesting chute, wave, or what-have-you. I bet Rick
loves that kayak, but after about the third strainer he had to be a
little jealous of how easy it was for me to jump in and out of the canoe.
As the trip went on, there were fewer strainers and the stretches of
rapids got longer and more complex. The last quarter of the route
was almost constant class I / II rock gardens. These were not particularly
difficult rapids, but they went on for a long ways with rocks everywhere.
Rick and I really wished there was more water. Both of us were
having a hard time seeing all the rocks. I was creaming rocks. My
Fantasy canoe was complaining with loud cracking noises, the likes of which
I had never heard. Some rocks were just un-see-able and sometimes it
was hard to get enough paddle in the water to make the moves needed to avoid
the rocks I did see.
In the midst of one of these rapids I got tangled up in some overhanging
branches. The current was strong, I got sideways, and I took a dip.
Damn! That was cold water and I wish I'd have closed up the
top of my paddling jacket before I did that! I quickly rescued myself,
dumped the boat, drained water out of my jacket and we were off again.
After we passed the confluence with the Middle Patuxent, we knew the
falls were not far off. We beached by some old mill race structure
on river left and took a footpath down to look at the falls. I looked
at this rapid on a previous trip here when there wasn't enough water to
run. On that prior visit I had decided that I probably needed to carry
this set of rapids. On this trip, as I was scouting, I saw nothing
to change my mind about portaging. As we walked, Rick ventured that
he'd be happy to set safety and watch me running it, but in the cold and
gathering dusk, he wasn't up for it. So that was that. We got
back in the boats, ferried to river right, and carted the boats a quarter
mile out on the macadam surfaced hiking trail, arriving back at Rick's truck
in Savage around 5pm.
A good, but tiring trip, and it gave me great satisfaction to finally
run this stretch. I've been wanting to run it for a couple years,
but could never catch it with water. Of course, Rick and I are questioning
whether this was really enough water, but the gauge readings were consistent
with what I'd heard was a runnable level. Gertler says this is a 2.0
hour trip. One thing I've learned using his excellent guide, is that
Gertler paddles a hell of a lot faster than me. Or maybe he caught
it when there was enough water that he could float those ten strainers and
the current just swept him along.
Scenery:
In the summer, you'd think you were in a jungle somewhere. This
time of year, we could see homes through the wooded buffer zones. We
remarked that we could hear major traffic at all points today. The
river is never far from Routes 29, some of the big four-lane roads in Columbia,
Route 32, or I-95. Rick said he took some comfort from that.
No way we could get marooned in the wilds on this trip. We saw
ducks, geese, a heron, an owl, deer, a beaver who didn't seem at all concerned
we were paddling within 10 or fewer feet of him and a very few people walking
the paths that line the river. We saw minor amounts of trash and construction
debris. For a river in the heart of the Baltimore - Washington corridor,
I think this river has outstanding scenery!