4.3 - Stubblefield

On a recent virus distancing day, I was inspired to explore the options at Stubblefield. I have attained it at low levels, which was slightly harder than expected only because it gets so shallow. On this day, the level was 4.3 and I was in the Animas.

Putting on at Carderock, I paddled across and then down to admire the handiwork of Old Naked Guy on river right. His dams and islands have really held up. Seemed like there were a couple of little boofs spots, too. If you've not explored over there, it is worth a visit.

Ferried back and forth across Stubblefield itself and decided that attaining would be pretty simple. (Ominous organ music in background) I headed down to Lock 10. On the way back up, I was disappointed to see that they had taken the nesting boxes down off the American Legion bridge.

Arriving back at Stubblefield, I headed back to attainer’s right, where I thought there would be a quick up. Not so quick. Those with a faster boat and/or just better technique likely would have wondered what the fuss was. But I poked around a couple of places looking for the easy route. I made it in the end and wouldn’t call the move hard. But it was complicated, with multiple elements that needed to be connected. But I would be lying if I said it didn’t take some work.

I believe that it can be attained at a lot of levels. I want to come back at higher levels to see if the attainer’s left options would be there. (6 feet?) Again, Old Naked Guy’s work, along with the natural formations, should create a number of possibilities.

Of course, there are trails right along both the banks there, so it would be an easy carry if you needed to portage.

Attaining TO Anglers!

Yes, you read that correctly. I recently did two attains from downstream up to Anglers, one from Carderock and one from Lock 10. Clay, Jen and I attained from Carderock last summer at just below 3 feet, finding it annoyingly low. After a couple of downstream runs at higher levels, I began to think about the attaining possibilities.

At 4.8, I ran down Yellow Falls in the Animas, paddled down to the confluence above the Carderock put-in and headed back up the river left (attainer's right) side. It required a little effort to get back up to the ledges, but nothing too bad. From there it got more difficult. The current had plenty of push, while many places were still surprisingly shallow. It took a lot of micro-eddy hopping to work back up. The best route ultimately ended up requiring a ferry all the way across to the Virginia side, where a steady paddle returned me to Anglers. It was a solid workout.

A week later, I had run down to Lock 10 in the slalom boat at 4.1. Kristin and Clay were going to run the Billy Goat back to Anglers, so I decided to race them back upstream on the attain. It didn't require as much peak effort as the previous attain, but it did take some brain power to figure a route up Stubblefield. The ledges/cobble bar by Yellow Falls were even lower, making that section annoyingly difficult. It was mostly just long. (Yes, I did beat them back to Anglers...if you don't count the 30 minute head start they gave me while they changed and loaded boats.)

Short version...these are good workouts. But unfortunately, by comparison to the attains up from Anglers, these attains to Anglers are all the work, with none of the rewards --- no fun at S-Turn, no surfing at Rocky, no playing at the Chutes, no rest on the downstream leg home. But who needs rest, right?