Abel Reservoir, Stafford, VA – 23 Nov 2012

With our daughter Kate back from Seattle for Thanksgiving and a summer like day with highs at 65 degrees, it was a great opportunity to explore Abel Reservoir which is only 5 mins from our house.  Debbie and I had not explored the reservoir yet even though it is the closest water to our house because with the summer drought, it was down at least 5 feet and dried up in the upper reaches.

Hurricane Sandy fixed that with 5+ inches of rain in 48 hours and we were able to see Abel Reservoir fill overnight 3-4 weeks ago.  So, it seemed like a good idea to try it today!

Kate actually has more kayak experience than me as she and Daniel and bought an inflatable kayak for use around Seattle, but she had never experienced a Hobie… I think as of today she is a convert to peddling!

We loaded up, drove off and backed the trailer to near the water and prepped the kayak for launch.  Drifting out to the center of the inlet we placed the Mirage drives in started peddling toward the bridge.

There was one other boat trailer in the parking lot and we were to see two fisherman sometime later. They told us the reservoir continues way past our turn around point!

The day was beautiful a the water was like glass. I had no really idea how big Able Reservoir is but I do now!  I suspect we did 3-4 miles and we never got to the dam. along the way we saw geese, sharp rock cliffs that fell off into the water and homes along the bank I never knew existed.  in short, this reservoir has a lot of space and interesting challenges to absorb.

We picked a place after about 40 mins as our turn around point and still had not seen the end, so we retraced our steps and landed back at the launch area after about 1.5 hours of paddling, a bit warm in our wetsuits on this warm day.

We arrived back at the launch and was ready to go on the trailer in about 10 minutes!

 

All of the pictures are located here…

Beta:  3.4 miles round trip, 63 degrees, 5 knot wind