Catoctin Kayaking

Headed off this morning with my friend and our kayaks to paddle the northern section of the Patuxent River in Maryland. We had never been there before so we counted on the internet directions to be accurate - they weren't! We did end up finding it but the river was too low for anything but minnows.

We ventured further west and while searching some back roads for a put-in on the Monacacy River, where we had spotted a kayaker from the highway, we somehow managed to find ourselves in a gyrocopter field. That was an interesting find. If you've never seen a gyrocopter, picture a canoe with an engine on the back and a propeller on the top, and you've got a pretty good idea what they look like. I couldn't quite believe someone would feel secure flying in a makeshift canoe. I spoke with an owner of one and asked him if they're as scary as they look. He said, "only for the first couple of hours". He didn't seem like a joking kind of guy so I'm fairly certain I'll never be writing here about any first-hand gyrocopter experiences.

After four hours of driving and searching various other locations in Montgomery, Howard, and Frederick County, we finally decided to take a drive through the Catoctin State Park in the Catoctin Mountains. There we passed a large river bed with too many large rocks for any type of water craft (shown in above photo), and then finally happened upon a lake in the woods. A lake would never be my first choice for kayaking but, Hey, at least it was water!