Surfing the Potomac

4/12/06 -- What a day! Today Dave and I decided to do a little exploring. We had heard about a couple of paddle-in backcountry camp sites on the Potomac River up in Chicamuxen Creek but so far had never had a chance to check them out. Thinking that we might lead a trip there this winter we decided to go scouting.

To keep milage on the short side, we decided to launch from Leesylvania State Park in Woodbridge, VA. The first thing we noticed at Leesylvania was that the winds were much stronger than they had been at home -- blowing out of the South at upwards of 20+ knots. Off we paddled head into the wind with the waves continuing to grow. At the point where we crossed the river the waves were a solid 2 feet with the occasional 3 footer thrown in. Not much fun to paddle into but I had my fingers crossed that the winds would hold so we could do some surfing on the way back.

Once we turned up into the creek the winds totally subsided and we were greeted by bald eagles, comerants, osprey and a whole flock of little black ducks. Using the go-to function on the GPS we found the otherwise invisible campsites. These will be great for winter camping but I think the bugs and the poison ivy would make them pretty miserable in the summer.

After a quick snack we headed back to Leesylvania. Back on the river we were again greeted by 2-3 footers but this time going with us. We caught some great surfs. My GPS registered a top speed of 8.5 mph and I was averaging 6.5 mph! What took us over an hour on the way out took about 40 minutes on the way back. Its a rare day we get to enjoy waves like these on our normally calm waters.