June 2015 Kayaking Trip
Normally we have a scout write a recap article, but I had so much fun, I had to do it myself this time. So, the majority of this trip was planned by our newest leader (junior assistant scoutmaster) Sonjosua. He put together a great plan and trip for our 3 day weekend.
Unfortunately, we were not able to camp like we had planned on Thursday due to unexpected work emergencies on the leader side. Fortunately, we were still able to make it out early Friday morning for the kayaking part of our trip.
We arrived at the Shenandoah River Outfitters at around 9am, registered, and got underway around 9:45pm. We spent a few minutes getting acquainted with our new rides and shortly started down river. We set off around SRO mile marker 9 and we had smooth … kayaking … for several hours. We stopped around 11:30 for lunch (cold cuts prepped by Gavin and Sonjosua the day before) and relaxed for a while. We got back on the river and encountered the largest issue we would face for the rest of the trip… low water levels.
For several miles, the water was so low that we did more scooting and walking then we did kayaking. However, once we made it past that section of the river, it was once again a smooth and easy trip. We encountered lots of small drops, and several class I rapids. Towards the end (mile marker 7 1/2), we got to ride the best part of that section of the river, Compton Rapids, a class II rapid. No one had any issues on the rapids, and Beckette even went in backwards.
Having arrived at the pickup location (mile 19), we splashed around for a few minutes just now realizing how sore and burnt some of us got (sun screen does not stay on well in the water come to find out). Once we put ashore, we got a ride back to our cars and promptly left.
Another unfortunate situation caused the second part of our trip to be canceled last minuet due to weather. Because of this, we changed our “camping” location and had an enjoyable night fellowshipping and spending time with each other.
While harder than most thought it would be, it seemed that everyone very much enjoyed the trip. We are already in the works of planning another kayaking trip. Maybe something with a few more rapids.
If your group or troop is interested in doing the same trip we did, I can’t recommend Shenandoah River Outfitters enough. The drivers, and staff are very nice and friendly and the prices for groups are VERY reasonable ($26/person for kayaks is the group rate at this time).
If you have any questions, please feel free to drop us a line! Until next time, stay safe and have fun!