Day Four - Monday, April 21, 2008

Day Four – Monday, April 21, 2008
Richmond (Huguenot Woods) to Dutch Gap Conservation Area, 20 miles

This was the day that I had been most worried about during the preparations for the trip. Initially my plan was to portage about 7 miles through Richmond on city streets with a fully loaded kayak. Luckily, Greg Velzy with Chesterfield County showed me the low water route through most of the Richmond rapids, which would leave only two portages of a combined mile and a half. After the struggles with portaging a fully loaded boat just a couple miles at Brightly, it was definitely the right decision. The trade off, however, was paddling a fully loaded, eighteen foot, fiberglass sea kayak through some solid Class 2 rapids. My goal was to get through without hurting myself or doing “trip ending” damage to the boat.

I woke early to more rain, although it stopped as I was getting my breakfast together. I should have broken down my tent as soon as the rain let up, but instead I continued eating my breakfast. Mistake – by the time I finished and needed to take the tent apart it was raining hard again. Tent was soaked between the night before and taking it down in the rain. My sleeping bag and tent clothes (pajama bottoms, long sleeve cotton t-shirt and socks) got damp despite my best efforts to keep them dry.

I was on the water by 7:45 a.m., time to face my concerns and get through the Richmond Fall Line – 105 feet of vertical drop in seven miles. The first challenge of the morning would be a fairly short portage around Z-dam. As I approached the dam, I could not remember exactly where the portage trail was. I was fairly certain that the takeout was very near the dam, but sure did not want to make a mistake with that and get too close to the dam. When I got to the first warning signs which are under the power lines, I pulled into shore and walked through the brambles to confirm my memory of the portage takeout. The trail was short and sandy so I dragged the boat over the trail.

Pony Pasture was the first real whitewater of the trip and awaited me after a flat water section below Z-dam. My guidebook was 1 ½ pages of soggy notes that I had written down after Greg and I paddled the week before my departure. With memory jogs like ”eddy behind the flat rock that is just in front of the tall domed rock” and “hit the wave train then cut back toward the dog beach”; I was suddenly wishing that Greg was in front of me to lead the way again. Regardless, the run was mine to make.

The notes worked well for Pony Pasture although at one spot I hit a gap too far to the right and slid across and down a rock ledge. The rest of the whitewater went okay – no really hairy situations but got out of position several more times and misread the water quite a few times also. When Greg and I paddled, I only hit one rock the entire run. Seemed that I hit one rock every hundred yards on my own. The Expedition is definitely in need of some fiberglass work. Several spots where the gel coat is knocked off along the keel, and a number of deep and long gouges.

The rapids looked way bigger in person, trust me!

The last rapid that I planned to run was First Break which is at the top of Belle Island. Somehow I completely forgot which side of a little island I needed to be on and ran a different, but manageable rapid. Realized my mistake, which left me needing to ferry across the run out from First Break to get to the flat rocks on Belle Isle for my take out. The flow from First Break leads down into Approach rapid and then Hollywood which is Class 4 at this water level – way beyond my abilities in any boat, much less the Expedition. The flow was not that fast, so I was confident in my ability to ferry across but my heart was still racing a little as I pushed off.

First Break Rapid viewed from Belle Island

After a successful ferry, I pulled the boat up on the rocks and unloaded everything so that I could get it on the cart and up onto the trail. Once all the gear was back in, I started down the trail only to quickly realize that indeed I should have screwed the other tire on when I had the chance. The remaining tire came off, so I was again left rolling on one tire (with drywall screws through it) and one plastic wheel. Tiring as it was to pull the loaded boat, I just kept thinking how much better it was than 7 miles on city streets! I had not checked the time until I got to the end of Belle Isle and was preparing to paddle across to the Tredegar Street takeout. I was pleased to see that it was only 10:30 am.

Belle Island now houses a series of trails for hikers, bikers and runners but it has a much sadder history. In addition to a foundry, Belle Isle also served as a prison for Federal soldiers during the Civil War. It was an island of misery for thousands of men, many of whom never made it home.

The paddle across to Tredegar Street was uneventful, but the loose rock incline that I had to traverse to get to the walkway, again had me worried about my boat. Instead of unloading everything again, I started crab walking the loaded boat up the gravel trying to set it down gently each time, keeping a sharp eye out for an athletic looking pedestrian to help me. Normally this area is hopping with foot traffic including plenty of runners, but the rain was keeping everyone away. I had just resigned myself to unloading gear from the boat yet again, when a car pulled up in an adjacent parking area. A husky guy (good news) and a young woman hopped out and started in my direction. Turns out it was a reporter and cameraman for the local CBS affiliate. They were doing a story on how people were coping with the rain and wanted to interview me. Quite the sight – me sopping wet from the rain and the river with an 18’ sea kayak sideways on this gravel incline. Nothing to do but make a deal – I would give the interview provided the strapping young cameraman would help me carry the kayak up to the trail and get it on the cart.

We did a quick interview, about 15 seconds of which ended up on the evening news. Most importantly, I was back on flat ground with the boat on the cart. Even with only one tire the portage went pretty well – exhausting, but I got to the end of the trail. The toughest part was the final thirty feet over rip rap to get back down to the water. I carefully worked the cart over and between the rocks and finally slid the boat, still attached to the cart, back down into the river. I came close to deserting the cart and asking Greg or Chris to come by and get it to a dumpster, but figured if she brought me this far the least I could do was keep her along. Plus, I just did not know what other surprises the trip might throw at me.

After eating my lunch and checking in with Kate, it was time to deal with the last riffle before tidal water. Since I ended up screwing up the first riffle of the trip, it was no surprise when I screwed up this last one as well. Because this riffle (really a series of three riffles) is partially tidal, it looked a lot bonier than when Greg and I had scouted closer to high tide. The first part went well, by choosing a good line I cruised through and was in good shape for the second little section. As I was cruising through that section I realized that there was yet another really rocky section to the right or I could cut to the left. I was able to pull into the dead water between these two channels but my stern was pointed to the left. Since the left channel was the one that I wanted to go down and there was no way of turning the boat without climbing out onto the little muddy island, I figured I’d just run this last riffle backward. Heck, kayaks are pointy on both ends for a reason. Given my whitewater performance, it was probably appropriate to finish up bass-ackards.

Despite getting through the whitewater and three portages, I still had a long paddle ahead if I was to make my destination of Dutch Gap Conservation Area. Greg had gotten me permission to camp in the conservation area and mentioned that there was a picnic shelter and port-a-john, both of which sounded pretty good after all the rain. The tide was forecast to be against me this afternoon, but I was not sure how much impact it would have this far upriver. Immediately below the last riffle I could not feel any tidal effect, but it was slack and nasty. There was lots of trash in the water and it smelled like sewer – no doubt, extra pungent because of all the storm sewer runoff over the last few days. I had filled up my Katadyn filter bottle while stopped for lunch and after seeing and smelling this stretch of river decided to dump that water out and replace it with what I was packing in the back hatch. For the upper river, I had used the filter for my on-water drinking needs and generally used my water supply for cooking and in the evenings. I had last filled up at Brightly and had plenty to last through Dutch’s Gap, although I was not sure when my next opportunity to fill up would be. If I got desperate, I could always pull up on someone’s lawn and ask permission to fill up from their spigot. While I did not plan to frequent them since they usually required paddling out of the way, there were also marinas along my intended route that I could divert to if needed.

I was surprised by how industrial-canal like the 7 miles or so below Richmond is. I had never paddled this section before and quite honestly can’t think of any reason to paddle it again. Lots of trash floating along the edges, steep muddy banks with that smell of tidal flat at low tide mixed with diesel fuel . Not much boat activity on this rainy Monday – a tug holding a barge in place while it was loaded with what appeared to be coal dust. Also passed a relatively small container ship being loaded at the Richmond deepwater port. The ship appeared to be Scandinavian and had what to my eye was a bow design for breaking through ice. It also had what appeared to be a small submarine near the stern.

As quickly as the river turns from whitewater to Industrial Canal, near Drewry’s Bluff the river opens up and takes on the characteristics of the lower tidal James River that I am more familiar with. I really traversed three rivers this day – the urban whitewater of Richmond, the slack industrial canal section coming out of Richmond and the upper tidal stretch. It was a long slog from Drewry’s to Osbourne Landing where I got out and called Kate about 3:30pm. It just poured and poured rain most of the day. At one point I thought it could not rain any harder, apparently mother nature heard my thought and decided to have some fun, because it immediately opened up even harder.

As I was to learn was my pattern, late in the afternoon I got a second wind and picked up the pace for the final stretch to the turn off for Dutch’s Gap. The Conservation Area is in an old barge pit, whatever that is, which requires about a two mile paddle off the main river. As I entered the barge pit, I could see a metal building with an upper deck lookout, a wood and shingled picnic area and a metal covered picnic area. There was also a parked Ford Explorer, but no one around. Given the rain, I really wanted to have at least some shelter from the picnic shelter. The metal shelter was just over grass, which with all the rain was reverting back to marsh. The wooden shelter had a concrete pad, and while it was very wet around the edges, there was a spot in the middle that was only damp. I moved the picnic tables around to create a solo tent sized open spot in the middle. Since I obviously could not stake into cement, I had to put my knot tying skills to the test and run guy lines to the tables and shelter uprights. Lots of bowlines and trucker’s hitches had me well secured for the additional rain and wind that the evening would bring.

After a very long day, I was exhausted and hungry. I spread out my gear on the picnic tables and ate an entire Backpacker’s Pantry meal. Even with a warm meal in me, the long, wet day had left me quite chilled, but I was not ready to crawl into my tent yet. As I was sitting under the shelter, the skies cleared some and I actually got to see part of a sunset. I saw a canoe with two paddlers approaching the point and figured they belonged with the parked Explorer. Turned out to be a Virginia Tech grad student and his assistant. They had been out in the rain checking on the warbler nesting boxes. This was apparently the assistants first outing, so I helped with loading the canoe on top of the truck. After talking to Kate, Emma, Mom and Dad by cell, I was ready to climb into my slightly damp sleeping bag and get some rest. I was telling Mom about the day and she remarked that the whitewater must have been fun. It dawned on me, how stressful the morning had been. It was a huge relief to be through Richmond and camped under a shelter with permission for the evening. While there were certainly other challenges awaiting me downriver, I felt confident that I could handle them.