Jennifer's Birthday Paddle

To celebrate my friend Jen's milestone birthday a group of us decided to join her in paddling from Fletcher's Boathouse in DC down to Belle Haven Marina south of the Wilson Bridge. This 13 mile trip is not exactly "bucket list" material, but it's unusual to do the whole stretch at once (we chose to do a one way trip with a car shuttle return) and was a good choice given the vagaries of March weather and our beginning-of-season level of endurance. For better or for worse (and it really was a little of both) my car wasn't one of the ones being left at the Belle Haven end and so I was able to get a slightly later start and meet the group at Fletcher's.

Weather made the trip iffy until the last minute (thunderstorms in the forecast). I didn't get my stuff together until Saturday morning and so didn't really think through that I'd need my change of clothes at the Belle Haven end, where I wouldn't have my car. Fortunately I realized this in time and at the last second grabbed my clothes from the car, stuffed them into a Hefty bag and shoved them into the hatch of my kayak.Given the complexity of moving cars, boats and people around (Tom's logistal instructions were eleven steps long) it's remarkable that the group of nine of us was on the water by about 8:30.

The first section of this trip is a really pretty section of the Potomac. It seems so far removed from the city that it's always a shock to come around the bend of the river above Georgetown and see the buildings of Rosslyn and DC come into view. We didn't quite have the river to ourselves as fishermen were out in force, but it was still tranquil in the morning mist. As we approached Georgetown the river activity picked up: high knee racers from the Washington Canoe Club, a few other kayakers, and then the sculls. Lots and lots of sculls. I guess this is high season for crew teams and for a stretch down the river it was like being in a kayaking version of the old Frogger video game as our group repeatedly had to zigzig out of the way of the rowers, who generally assume they have the right of way over all craft and creatures.We followed the DC side of the river down to the Cherry Blossoms, where we rafted up for a few photos. Below Hains Point we crossed the river over to the Virginia side, crossing close enough to National Airport to watch the planes but staying far enough away to avoid the fumes. We made a brief pit stop at the Washington Sailing marina where no one look askance at a bunch of people in wet neoprene trooping over to the restrooms.

At this point the weather was starting to kick up a bit as forecast. The rain didn't bother us - we were dressed for the water - and the wind was at our backs, helping us along as we paddled past the soon-to-be-closed Mirant power plant, the Old Town Alexandria waterfront (where we saw the Sequoia, once the Presidential yacht), and finally under the Wilson Bridge. Once we were past the Wilson Bridge Belle Haven came into view and before we knew it we were pulling our boats up onto the carpeted launch ramp.Belle Haven is a crowded little dump of a marina (that is to say, it has character) and there was a group of teenagers just getting off the water from a volunteer river cleanup event as we arrived, plus at this point at was raining fairly hard and so there was lots of chaos as we loaded boats (four onto Brian's truck, two onto Bela's car, one onto Suzanne's car, plus two onto Nelson & Caroline's truck) and gear and ducked into the lovely restrooms to change. I had to keep a close eye on my Hefty bag to keep it from being carted away with the volunteer group's trash.

Once we had everything squared away we all piled into the cars and headed to a nearby Indian restaurant where we dug into the buffet lunch. Alas, we were split between two tables and so didn't get to stick a candle into a galub jamon and sing Happy Birthday to Jen.And here's where the bad part of not having had my car with me came into play. I had ridden over to the restaurant with Suzanne but forgot to move my Hefty bag to another car and so when she took off - she had to get back to Baltimore for an evening commitment - my paddling clothes went with her.

Yvonne, Tom, and I piled into Bela's car and eventually made it back to Fletcher's despite the fact that Bela (who lives in Annapolis and doesn't know the DC area that well) was receiving contradicting directions from Tom, Yvonne, his GPS and me. There we did a final swap of boats and gear, gave Jen her final birthday wishes and then all headed for home.

Now to begin thinking about what kind of similar trip I should plan for my similar upcoming milestone birthday, which is just months away ...