Saturday, July 14, 2012 - Kayaking in the Rain - AGAIN!!!
We launched from Bob's Fishing Hole on South Battlefield Blvd. It's just south of Gallbush Road. Nice place. They have a small concrete ramp, several wooden docks, and a number of places to launch from the bank. A bunch of people were fishing from the banks and from the docks and a number were launching boats. We didn't have any problems launching or parking, though.
It was a ridiculously gorgeous day .... other than when it was raining BUCKETS! More on that later. :)
Once we launched from Bob's, we went to the west under an old (but still in use) railroad bridge and under Battlefield Blvd. The railroad bridge was made by the Virginia Bridge and Iron Company in Roanoke, Virginia in 1909 (according to the plate stamped on the bridge).
Once we got past the bridges, the creeks on that side were so calm. The water was glassy. And it reflected the beautiful, puffy clouds perfectly. (Note that the clouds should have been a clue of what was to come.)
About an hour into the trip, it started lightly raining. No problem. It was hot out, so the rain was a welcome relief. Then the bottom dropped out. It was raining so hard that it actually made us laugh at how hard it was raining, and then it started raining harder. And then as quickly as is started, it stopped. For a while. This pattern would repeat itself for the rest of the trip. It was never so hard or for so long that it created a problem, so we were able to continue.
We found a few geocaches along the way. One was really cleverly hidden. It was a medium sized pill bottle camoflagued with digital camo duct tape (which was perfect for the tree it was in). The cache was about 10 feet up in a tree suspended by a length of fishing line that was looped around a neighboring tree. It took teamwork to get that one down because the fishing line was twisted around itself (10 feet up in the tree).
Four hours on the water. 6.7 miles on the GPS.
Great trip.
Click here for the video.
