Kindly Old Dr. K’s Hydrosphere

I ran across a few more old photos and I thought I’d stick them up here just for fun. 

Here’s me 34 years ago, modeling career already headed south.  This is around 1974, when I worked for Appalachian Outfitters, an outdoor store and boat shop with several branches in the DC/Baltimore area.  This was for a brochure on our paddling gear. 

This is the Anglers Inn put-in for the Potomac in the winter of 1977.  The river had gone up and down many times while the air temps stayed very cold.  As a result, the edges of the river were covered with huge blocks of ice for miles up and down the Gorge.  Getting in was easy, getting out…not so much.

Here is my old pal Al Jenkins on the Potomac in the winter of 1972, on Olmstead Island near Great Falls.  Note the high-tech gear.  I should point out that some of Al’s gear was outmoded even for the time.  His Lettmann Mark IV boat was state-of-the-art, though, and it’s still a good boat.

Here’s another old paddling companion, Cal Smith, on the Middle Fork of the Tygart, West Virginia in about 1973.  I’m not sure who that is running the drop.  They don’t make boats like that anymore.

It was 50 degrees today, with 4.75 ft on the Little Falls gauge, about 20,000 cfs.  There are some good spots on the river for the right boat at this level.  For playboaters one of the good ones is Offutt Island Channel, a small channel on the Maryland side of the river with a nice little breaking wave to play around on.  It's not anything radical, but it's friendly and safe, adventure enough when the water still has ice in it.  Some local yokels and some folks from Team River Runner were out this afternoon.  For 24/7/365 boating you can’t beat the Mighty Po.