Here are 2 pictures of the South Branch of the Potomac River. This is one of the hot spots where I like to swim and look for treasure. I'll add more later.

Above where I said: Look for treasure, most times you find junk.

I'll comment about the pictures above later.

Long story short, back on July 7th, I was invited to a family picnic up at the 1,200 acre Mount Storm lake. The lake is beside the Mount Storm power plant, employees have access to a private recreation area, that's where we were. They have a really nice area, white sand beach, pavilions with grills, running water, boat docks and little boardwalk things.

The water was warm, 82* that morning, with the air temperature in the low 50's. Nice in the water, but chilly when you'd get out!

Anyway, it was a fairly small picnic, maybe 30 people total? One bunch rolled in with 2 of these new type kayaks, unloaded them on the beach, open and free to use to anyone who wanted to paddle.

I took my mask/snorkel and swim fins. I'd been out snooping around, not finding much. This little boy came to me and asked if he could borrow my mask, I told him to hang tight, I'd just found one. I found the mask on the other side of the boardwalk thing from where we were swimming.

Long story short, I cleaned up the mask as well as I could with my fingers, it had been laying on the bottom of the lake for a while. The little boy put on the mask and stayed in the water playing, and stayed some more. He was still in the water after everything was picked up, cleaned up, loaded up and everyone was ready to go home!

The young man had a blast! And so did the folks playing around in the kayaks for their first time. Little, simple stuff that you can enjoy for a lifetime, and won't cost you a fortune.

From what I was told they blasted off over $20,000 worth of fireworks that night. For me, I'd rather spend $100 for a mask/snorkel, and swim fins, and it won't go up in 30 minutes in a puff of smoke.

That lake is pretty neat, isn’t it Tim? You could probably swim in that lake in December if you are brave enough.

It is a neat lake. Not sure about swimming up there in December? I was up there on January 1st, there was about a foot of snow on the ground with temps in the teens.

The day of the picnic, the power plant had their "cooling towers" in operation. Hard to explain how that works, and that was the first time I've been beyond the parking lot and guard shack. From what I could see driving by, basically they pump water up maybe 60 feet and it flows over a set of baffles, more or less air cooled, and then is discharged back into the lake. Not sure what the actual discharge temperature would be?

Mount Storm is 30 miles from here, the first time that I remember swimming up there, the visibility in the lake would have been around 20 feet or so. We've had a lot of rain and the water was choppy the last time I was up, visibility would have been 5 or 6 feet. There must be lots of channel catfish in the pond, the biggest one that I spotted was only 12 or 14 inches long, lots of little ones.

Talking about these newer style kayaks, they are much easier to keep going in the right direction than a boat like my old closed cockpit whitewater kayak. And a lot more stable too.

You'd be amazed at the number of nimrods that will rent a canoe, never been in one before, and teter-totter down the river, like a stick of driftwood. Those are the folks that lose their goodies. Paddling a canoe is not difficult.

I am not certain what you mean by a "newer" kayak.

You have to keep the young ones moving. Grandkids are up for a few days right now. We have a zip line set up, sand toys on our beach, as well as a small shower in the water, tonka toys by the patio etc. Campfire last night complete with smoores.

One just got up and is with Granny making hot chocolate.

Fire works are not where I spend my money!

Good deal.

If this link doesn't work, search angling kayak or fishing kayak.

https://www.bing.com/search?q=angling+ka...a54163ce344fef6

I guess you could say that it's a cross between a boat/kayak/canoe. Stable enough to stand up in and fish, very shallow draft, only 3 or 4 inches. And they must track very well. They are the going thing around here now.

We see some of those here, too.

This is a boat I REALLY want. It's a cross between a canoe and a kayak. They weigh about 30 pounds so are easy to portage. But they are also very pricey.

https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=Oo7GqyN6&id=4E2345BF365185A83C272DA26F0946829B420FAA&thid=OIP.Oo7GqyN6SmoeqbxgDu1wjQHaEL&mediaurl=https%3a%2f%2fpaddling.com%2fstorage%2fsized%2fstorage%2fimages%2fproducts%2fSwift-Canoe-Kayak%2f141868%2fPack12_d0c879783fc6471abef5d80ce64adb18.png&exph=500&expw=887&q=swift+pak+boat&simid=607986622206509700&selectedIndex=11&ajaxhist=0

A friend of mine, Doug, runs this outfit, he keeps his boats up at Wardney's house. Sometimes Wardney will help shuttle people, drop them off and get them at the pick up point later.

http://www.kwvww.com/

If the link works, it'll tell you what brand/style boats that he has. They are top of the line, and high dollar! Around $1,200 each.

Above we were talking about how different boats would "track". Wardney told me that Doug put in here below town, went down the creek, into the next county, about 30 miles total, in less than 4 hours. That's making pretty good time.

Those are pretty nice boats. My buddy sells NuCanoe brand fishing kayaks, and they are really nice too, and the nice ones are in that $1000-$1500 price range also.
Thanks for sharing your buddy’s business. I’m going to bookmark his page. If I make it up to South Branch to fish, I will most likely be giving him a call. His rates are really reasonable for a DIY float trip.

Brian, that link above won't work for me. Not sure if you're talking about the Kevlar boats with poles, similar to the poles you'd use in a dome tent or what?

I'll tell you, when my buddy Doug first started his little boat rental business, not sure, a couple or 5 years ago? He told me that it was his retirement plan. I know that it was a pain in the ass for him to get all of the permits/licenses that he needed. Seems like the outfitter over in the next county, was a little bit concerned about a little fair and honest competition. And they pushed the issue. Competition is what keeps everyone on the same playing field, fair and square. It's a good thing!

Honestly, I'd never looked at Doug's web site till the other day. I also looked at his prices, and I agree, they are very reasonable. I looked at it like this: Just say you and I would want to float/fish the South Branch, from the Old Field's Bridge to Harmison's, that would be 12 miles on the water. It'd be a 45 minute drive from here to Harmison's.

If I'd have my boat/canoe loaded up, strapped down and ready to go, if you'd meet me here at 7:00 am, by the time you'd follow me down the road, park your truck at Harmison's landing, then drive back up, and unload at the Old Field's Bridge, we'd be lucky to be on the water at 9 O'clock!

With the price of gas now, it'd be pretty tough to drive 2 trucks, 90 minutes each, for less than $50 total.