A Raging River

Over the weekend we received a generous amount of rain in the DC Area. I knew this meant impending doom for Day 1 of YMCA Spring Break camp (for those who don't know, I'm a Mental Health Therapist for The Y, and over Spring Break and during the summer we run "therapeutic" camps for the kids, i.e. I get to wear shorts, trail shoes, and a flannel to work). This is a very special time for me.

It was my job to plan Day 1 so I decided we'd take the kids to the Maryland side of Great Falls National Park to hike the popular Billy Goat Trail. I was worried about all the rain over the weekend because I know the trail closes when the water level reaches 5.4 (considered "Action" stage). When I checked last night the water was at 10.8 ("Flood" stage) and today it peaked at 11.7 ("Moderate" stage, not to be confused with "Major" stage). I hope this blog is not only entertaining, but informative regarding river levels.

With the Billy Goat Trail buried under 10,000 feet of water, there's not much to do on the Maryland side of Great Falls unless you want to walk up and down the towpath and stare at the C & O Canal. A good plan for a group of fourteen, ADHD-diagnosed teenagers? No shot.

We decided our best bet was to travel to the Virgina side of Great Falls where one can get up close and personal with the higher-than-normal rapids - a little more excitement for the kiddies. Somehow we managed to kill almost 4 hours in the park with a mix of team building activities, a football and a frisbee, lunch and snacking, tug-o-war, throwing stone after stone into the Potomac River, "blind" dodge ball, some form of tag I will never play again, board games, and general chaos. Luckily, no one was insured save for some minor cuts and skinned knees. While many of the kids showed signs of boredom at times, overall I felt pretty good about the day, considering it was completely impromptu.

As we drove past the sign for the park one of the kids asked longingly, "Wait, are we in Virginia???" And this served to remind me just how unprivileged some of these kids are, coming mainly from low-income, immigrant families. It's a big deal for them to have these experiences over the next few days: to go bowling, climb a ropes course, or hell, even travel into Virginia. Sadly, these kids don't get around much - one of them told me, "My dad lives far away, I'm not sure where...I think in Rockville." For those who don't live in the Montgomery County suburbs: 1) I envy you, and 2) Rockville is about 15 minutes from where most of these kids live, hardly "far away."

What does this post have to do with photography? Not much, except that I brought my camera along today and snapped these two shots of the falls: a violently raging river.