Low Water

Hello from the craft table

July 51, 2024, 12:55
High 100ºF/ Low 77ºF, blue skies, pressure 1015 mb, waxing gibbous, 3.7 feet

The river is low.
The air temperature is high.
I am amphibious, leaping or flopping in the water whenever I can.

We returned from Oakland on June 30th and I headed straight into the river for summer camp and whitewater raft guiding. My schedule alternates between big activity and rest, on watch and off watch, just like at sea. My calluses, shoulders, and ideas are becoming more defined. I steer the raft and call for paddle strokes and load and unload gear. I have an outlet to share all the skills I honed at sea. The techniques and terrain are very different, but the ability to bring calm and fun are the same.

I’ve paddled the falls of the James at least fifty times with seventy different people. I have guided kids in foster care, moms on girls’ trip, a boy with Down Syndrome, adults in substance abuse recovery programs, lifetime Richmonders, and folks visiting from other countries. The trips start in the wildness of the James River Park System and the city pops up around the bend. I love how the water creates separation from the frenetic energy of a city, while letting us still be a part of it all. It reminds me of sailing in San Francisco and New York harbor. I’m over the moon to have found my way back to this feeling.

Before a day on the river, we check the water level at the Westham gauge to get a sense of what the conditions will be like — which rocks we can glide over, which become rapids, which will hang us up. The water has dropped five feet since training, and ten feet from my personal high water mark. I am rounding the bend on a year living here and delighted to know this characteristic of our watershed. Last weekend we had some big storms upriver and briefly gained eight inches. Now we are back to 3.7 feet.

When the water is low, there is often one route to take through the rock gardens, and sometimes the only way through small sections is to get out and push. The senior guides have names for dozens of rocks and can describe the river in vivid detail. The best way to learn has been running the river again and again and again, getting stuck and unstuck, and receiving feedback in each post-trip debrief.

In some sections of the river, water meanders around rocks with only a little margin outside the raft. Oftentimes, we can’t see the whole path to the next open stretch of water and so we go off memory, following a senior guide, or simply trying and sometimes learning the hard way.

The water level feels a little low off the river too. Our housemates are moving out and the stacks of boxes and belongings leave a narrow path, or line, like running a rapid. On the other side of this month, the river widens to a slower pace and more space.

Keeping track of river time with blue stickers:

In the fall, I will need to be making more money, so I’m looking downstream for the next lines.

Here is my resume, let me know if I can help with whatever you are building.