Kayaking once again ... finally! (Fairfax, Cana: Valentine's day, houses, safety)

[GreenGene]

My wife and I have been waiting for weather like today's. We've had some pretty nice days over the last 4-6 weeks, but it seemed that every nice day - suitable for kayaking - one or both of us were already busy with something else.

Not today. The only item on the calendar today was to get out on some water with our kayaks, and we did.

Tomorrow's supposed to be even warmer, but Fountainhead (http://www.nvrpa.org/parks/fountainhead/ - broken link) is likely be jumping, and we prefer to go when it's not quite so busy. Besides, we're retired ... every day is Saturday!

[normie]

Wowee wowee, you're putting in already??? Oh, I'm delighted to hear that. If the river's ready, then I'm going to see if I can talk my grandson into taking me Sunday.

I've never tried Fountainhead. We usually go to Algonkian, but I'm up for trying some new things this year. Do you like kayaking there? Is it just a stretch of river or are there interesting things to paddle around (coves, bridges, interesting homes to look at, maybe big rocks where the birds hang out, etc.)

[GreenGene]

Originally Posted by normie

Wowee wowee, you're putting in already??? Oh, I'm delighted to hear that. If the river's ready, then I'm going to see if I can talk my grandson into taking me Sunday.

I've never tried Fountainhead. We usually go to Algonkian, but I'm up for trying some new things this year. Do you like kayaking there? Is it just a stretch of river or are there interesting things to paddle around (coves, bridges, interesting homes to look at, maybe big rocks where the birds hang out, etc.)

Hey, normie.

We've paddled at Pohick and Mason Neck, but Fountainhead is our favorite. The website will give you directions and the fees for launching kayaks.

The water is the Occoquan Reservoir, and one of the nicest things is that they limit the size of motors on boats ... and no jet skis! Definitely kayak-friendly.

There are a number of inlets, and of course with a kayak you can go a long, long way in with very little water. There are some interesting houses to look at on the Prince William side - not as many on the Fairfax side, since a lot of the Fairfax side in Fountainhead Regional Park (they have a number of hiking trails there as well).

Mostly, we go because it's usually very quiet (during the week, anyway), and you don't have to contend with a lot of waves, and there's plenty of wildlife. Today we saw several blue heron, and turtles sunning themselves on logs, and ducks and Canada geese of course. In previous paddles last year, we saw bald eagles, deer, fox, osprey, egret, sandpiper, etc., etc.

[Caladium]

We saw people out on Lake Anne yesterday.

[irisheyes13]

Originally Posted by GreenGene

My wife and I have been waiting for weather like today's. We've had some pretty nice days over the last 4-6 weeks, but it seemed that every nice day - suitable for kayaking - one or both of us were already busy with something else.

Not today. The only item on the calendar today was to get out on some water with our kayaks, and we did.

Tomorrow's supposed to be even warmer, but Fountainhead (http://www.nvrpa.org/parks/fountainhead/ - broken link) is likely be jumping, and we prefer to go when it's not quite so busy. Besides, we're retired ... every day is Saturday!

Thanks for this link.. we headed there this morning to for a hike with our dog. We loved it and will be back with our kayaks before long!

[GreenGene]

Originally Posted by irisheyes13

Thanks for this link.. we headed there this morning to for a hike with our dog. We loved it and will be back with our kayaks before long!

I'm happy to hear that you took advantage of the weather and the park - we have really enjoyed our visits there over the last year.

In January we adopted a dog - our first dog in more than five years (and now we can't believe we let 5 years slip away without a dog!) - and a couple of weeks ago we took her over to Fountainhead to explore one of the trails. Great fun.

[Caladium]

When is the earliest time you can go kayaking around here? Can you go out on lakes earlier than on the rivers?

[normie]

Some people go out in April, but I usually wait until May unless we get a long warm spell first. The general safety rule for the Potomac is to wait until the air temp plus the water temp equal 100, but that's probably a little bit of overkill. There have been years when we've gone out on Valentine's Day just for the novelty of doing so. (But if you try it, the currents from melting snow upstream will be strong and you won't want to be out there very long.)