|
 You could do worse . . . New
- Forum: BoaterTalk
Re:  How's the boating scene in Richmond? Is it a decent place to live? kirbyboater New
Date: Nov 26 2008, 17:49 GMT
From: ralf
 |
|
 |
|
I think it's a pretty nice city with some good people. You can live in the Fan for a more urban experience than you get in other mid-sized southern cities. Or, you can live out in the west end or the burbs if you like things more burby.
The good thing about the James is that you can almost always paddle. It's runnable at most levels, though it certainly gets boring when low. It's close enough and the shuttle is short enough that you can do the whole thing in under 2 hours. The bad thing about the James is that it's urban and parts seem kind of gross.
If the water is high there is some nice park and play near the pony pasture park, which is less urban that the downtown run on the James. I think that it has a decent boating scene, due in large part to the easy access.
Driving to other places - About 1.5 hours or less to the Tye (near charlottesville), which includes a nice class 2-3 run and a couple of very high quality 4-5 runs (the north and south forks). Those need a good amount of rain, but run fairly often in a normal winter and spring (not in a drought like this though).
About 2 or 2.5 hours to the Maury near Rockbridge Baths. That's a great class 3 runs (with one 4). It's runnable at a lot of levels, but is very rain dependent. In a good year (especially if there was snow in the mountains during the winter) I've seen it run for about a month straight in early spring. It runs more often than the Tye, but in a drought, it rarely runs.
There are other creeks near the Tye and other novelty runs (bull pasture, etc) between C-ville and the WV line all in the 2-4 hour range. Most need a good amount of rain.
The New and Gauley are about 4 hours. The cranberry (and its cousins) and sections of the meadow may be a little closer. I think Northern WVa is about 5 or 6 hours. Great stuff up there, though I never drove there from Richmond. |
|
 |
|
 |
|
BoaterTalk 
