A sign from the gods!

How can you be a true attainer and not be inspired by this brief video account of attaining the Lower Yough?

OR

How can you be a normal person and not be horrified by this brief video account of attaining the Lower Yough?

(Yes, I do believe there are two types of people in the world.)

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?

5.9ish

Backchannel to side channel above Md. Chute. Ferried across to island by Va Chute, made my way up the Va shore to the rock-tree triangle. couldn't quite make that move to continue up. Rusty? Maybe....Possible? probably...

2.73 and steadily lowering

Laura, Chris, Grayson, and I headed out to Anglers for a Veterans Day Attain. Very lake-like out there. We had a couple of piroutte's? a slalom boat, and a green boat. There's a somewhat clear path up the middle of center chute and you can attain Virginia. Didn't try Maryland.
Wetbottom was getting harder but I was able to get up, Grayson was also able to get up the far attainers right side. Continued up easily to portage where we stopped.

Angler's to Sturn @3.1xft

Grayson, Kristin, Jason, and I attained from the eddy below Md. chute to Rocky at an even pace. I think we all took different routes. Me, just up the right side of center and then up the Md side to Wetbottom. Tried the attainers right at rocky, still to high for me. left was fine. We were joined by JohnM at Sturn. Lower S-turn was reasonable, and upper S-turn was hard to get a good start (swirly eddy and surgy top), but if you got there at the right time it was doable. Mine was pretty sloppy. Va chute again was fine.

Angler's to S-turn: 3.25+

Dropping levels brought the VA Chute attain back into play. Rocky on attainers left at this level is friendly to "first ascents". S-turn Lower was pretty easy, but S-turn Upper (up to Fish Ladder) was a reasonably demanding ferry.

Carderock to Angler's - 3.35

In response to an announcement that the PotomacFest attainment race might use Carderock to Angler's as a course (June 23rd entry on http://worldkayakblogs.com/billsblog/ ), Jen Sass, Clay Deming and I decided to check it out. After a slippery carry down to the sticky clay riverbank in a thunderstorm, we headed up river. As the rains stopped, we were presented with wonderful misty river vistas that eventually included a vibrant rainbow. Unfortunately, these were the highlights of the trip.

At this level, we got mostly flat water and sneaky rocks. We looked at Yellow Falls, finding one potential route at this level and one that might be possible with the water a little higher. Jen did a little probe in the middle, then we went around below the island (Turkey Island?) and back up the other side, each finding our own scramble over the shallow rocks --- sweeps strokes and paddle abuse! From above Yellow Falls, the trip to Angler's is just flat water.

General consensus was that it might be a more interesting route at higher levels --- or it might just be harder.