Occoquan Reservoir

Sunday July 12, 2015

A group of friends decided to rent kayaks at the boat rental at Lake Ridge Park in Woodbridge, VA. The park was about a 50 minute drive from DC.  The park opens up onto Occoquan Reservoir.  There are other places to rent in the vicinity but this was the cheapest of them.

I met the group with my kayak around noon and had to pay a $3 launch fee, carrying my boat from the parking lot to the ramp (very short distance).  The park charges $6 if you unload the boat at the top of the ramp.  The distance between the parking lot and the top of the boat ramp is minimal so it is odd that they charge you that extra $3.  You can also rent john boats, SUPs, paddleboats, canoes.

The people I was with did a 2 hour rental so we were somewhat limited on time. Next time I go here, I will venture further.  Apparently you can paddle to Fountainhead from where we put in.  One of the other paddlers with us used an app called "Strava" (I think) that maps the route you paddled/time on the move.  We ended up paddling for about 45 minutes, going a distance of 2 miles and floating the rest of the time.  The app looked interesting and I will research using it.

Once you get out of the little cove where the boat launch is, you can either go left towards Fountainhead or right towards Sandy Run Regional Park.  We went left. If you go right, you will eventually hit the Occoquan Dam which limits the distance in that direction. Because this a reservoir there is no swimming as it is a source of drinking water.  Also, there is no current so you have to paddle to go anywhere.

The area was much more populated than yesterday's trip down the Monocacy, however since it is such a large space you didn't feel cramped.  There are some nice homes you paddle past and we saw a family of Canadian Geese floating by.  We also saw an impressive dive by an Osprey catching a fish.

Definitely will go back here.

Monocacy

Saturday July 11, 2015

Our friends Jeff and Christa recently moved to Frederick across the street from the Monocacy Blvd. boat ramp.  Since Chad was at the beach, I decided to join Jeff/Christa for a trip down the Monocacy.

We started shortly after noon.  Three of us put in at the boat ramp at Devilbiss Road.  We then leisurely paddled about 6 miles to the take-out point at the Monocacy Blvd. bridge.  Both the launch and the take out were easy.  The river was high and moving faster than normal but still somewhat slow.  It was also very muddy.  We brought along a floating cooler, named Boozey, that we towed behind us.  I did notice a slight drag on the kayak from towing the cooler but it wasn't too bad.

The trip took us about 3-3.5 hours.  We saw some cool rock formations along the banks.  Part of what I love about the Monocacy is that it feels like a private river with no distractions/light traffic.  We saw some Kingfishers, Osprey, Herons.  A train crossed the bridge right as we were going under it so we wave to all the passengers.

Overall it was a very easy paddle and one that would be good to do on short notice.