Great Falls, Great Photos, Great Halloween!

While much of the kayaking community was at the Green Race, we spent Halloween afternoon and the next day paddling the Maryland (pummel) and Virginia lines (the Spout) at Great Falls on the Potomac River. 

Chris Menges, Pummel.

Check out the rest of this post for some truly amazing kayak photography by Craig Campbell.

The Great Falls section of the Potomac River is a unique type of water feature that offers up numerous creek boating lines, waterfalls and play spots at a huge variety of water levels. Here, the Potomac River forms the border between Maryland and Virginia. For waterfalls and creek lines, the commonly run sections of the falls include the Maryland lines (low-water), the Virginia lines (medium levels) and the Center lines (high water).

I currently live in Colorado, but on a recent trip home to the DC area I was lucky enough to get on both the Maryland and Virginia lines.

Thanks to Maggie Snowell for showing me the lines and Craig Campbell for the amazing images shown here.

Paddlers – Chris Menges and Maggie Snowell

Photography – Craig Campbell

Maggie looking solid and smooth and headed for the center. Note the cat ears on her helmet – in the spirit of the holiday, she borrowed from her day costume and added some flair to the afternoon paddling session.

 

Chris Menges boofing off the center of Pummel.

Hiking back up for another lap.

 
We eddied out and pulled through some rocks to move towards the VA side of the falls…..

 

After a few laps on Pummel, we ferried across to ‘the flake’ to hike up for some runs on the Virginia lines.
Note the special Potomac foam in the eddy below Maggie.

Scouting the VA lines…looks like we see the same thing! Note the nice fall foliage in the background.

 

Chris dropping in to the entrance rapid – U Hole - on the VA side of Great Falls.

Maggie took the center line of U Hole – generally considered the harder line – and got a solid boof off!

 

These are just such an awesome shots! – Chris, center line, Horshoe.

 

S-Bend follows the entrance rapid and then leads into the Spout – a 20 footer. Chris in S-Bend

This perfect drop – ‘The Spout’ finishes the VA side of the falls lines nicely. Maggie drops the Spout – great form at just the right spot.

Chris on the 1st of 3 laps….

Maggie, Spout sequence .

 

Happy Halloween!!!