Virginia photographer and outdoor enthusiast Andrew Thayer is canoeing the entire 180-mile length of the Shenandoah River. Thayer dipped his boat the Shenandoah headwaters last week, and he will be canoeing all the way to the Shenandoah’s confluence with the Potomac River. Along the way, he will document his journey with words and photos.

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A bald eagle soaring above the Shenandoah River. Whenever it wasn’t raining during the journey, I saw many eagles along the Shenandoah. When it did rain, I rarely saw any wildlife. Which I can understand because what animal in his right mind would be out in bad weather on the river?

These are images from the first day. John Politz and I are at the marker placed near the spring. The other is of the spring where we started hiking.

The final day of the journey down the Shenandoah River began a several miles upstream from the confluence with the Potomac River. The river is flat and slow at this point until you reach the rapids where it gets challenging. The first day that John and I started canoeing on this journey there was rain, the river was up and moving fast. A sharp contrast from over 150 miles back and two weeks ago at the start of canoeing up until today. We decided to finish the journey on Saturday, a day earlier than the scheduled because Sunday there will be rain. Around half of the days on this journey had some amount of rain and it would be nice to end it with no rain.

We approached the drop known as Bull Falls and pull up to a rock to take a closer look. As we are looking at the falls, a flotilla of rafts from some of the area’s river guides appear around the bend. John and I decide to wait and watch the rafts go through first. Slowly, one by one, they go through Bull Falls. When the last of over a dozen rafts approaches the falls, we load up in the canoe for our turn. We have lightened the load for this final section of the journey. I have only brought a video camera in a small water tight box and plan to use it when there is little chance of it getting wet. John has brought his small video camera and rubber bands it to the underside of the lid of his LSU baseball cap. He also brings the only phone and his wallet in a water box. We also brought a bottle of spring water that we have been carrying with us from the spring at the beginning of this journey where we filled up the bottle. One other item we brought that needs mentioning is an extra flotation device to help keep the canoe afloat when filled with water. My daughter was happy to lend us her penguin snow tube. The tube has an attachment on one side that is in the shape of a penguin head. We strapped it down in the middle of the canoe. With our penguin and canoe, we paddle out to the falls.

The falls that we are going through is one of three chutes on the left side of the river. There is a left, center and right chute. Ours is on the right. The many rafters have gone through and are waiting below the falls. I see the falls getting closer and the scores of people watching from beyond. We slowly are drawn into the falls, speed up and crash through the first wave. Taking on lots of water, we work to line the canoe up for the next wave. We ride the wave to the top where it pushes the canoe sideways and dumps us. A short float out from the rapids and we are able to stand up and pull the canoe to a rock where we turn it over and drain out the water. Cheers and whistles come from the crowd of people at our attempt at the falls.

The rafts begin there journey and I check my video camera and it looks fine. I get some video of the falls and some more of the rafts. After chatting with some of the people we load back up and float some more. No one ever commented about the penguin. Maybe no one noticed. It looks like a regular tube except for the fact there is a separate tube that looks like a head attached to one side. It could be possible that everyone is so into the river, rapids and the moment that they do not notice much else. That is what the river and nature is all about. Experiencing that moment in nature and here in the Shenandoah Valley and on the river, you can find these moments everywhere.

We continue on down the Shenandoah and go through many rapids, crash into many waves and bail lots of water out of the canoe but were never swamped or rolled again that day. The sight of our final destination of the Potomac Wayside comes into view. I can see a woman with a little girl on the shoreline. It’s Nina and Carmen to come and pick us wet river dogs up for the last time. We reach the shore, John and I get out and have a drink of our spring water that we have carried over 180 miles.

The water that we collected at the spring, carried all the way and then drank at the end is about as good as water gets. I would not drink the water from the river at the end of this journey. The water from the spring to the Potomac was polluted and trashed along the way. We picked up trash that filled up about dozen trash bags. There seems to be a certain amount of people that just do not care about the environment in which they live. The simple task of properly throwing trash away and even recycling can make a difference. We can teach our children and others that we have a responsibility to our environment. You can even show them what this river and valley have to offer.

Thanks to everyone who helped me with this journey and to everyone that tuned in. I have an art show in Crozet, Virginia next weekend (May 9-10). So if you are in the Charlottesville area, stop by for a visit. Some point in the near future, I will post more images of the journey as I will have more time to edit through the thousand or more images. Check back from time to time to see if I added anything new. Thanks again and enjoy the outdoors.

Do to the looming bad weather for tomorrow, we are going to try and complete the rest of the journey today. There are about a dozen miles to go. We can certainly finish that today. Now that everything is dry and with a good nights sleep, we feel we can finish this journey before the weather gets bad again. After being rained on a few times and having to camp in the rain, I am going to try and avoid any more rain. So today should be the day of the journey’s end.

Along the way, I seen some great scenery. The Shenandoah Valley is a great place to live. We are all fortunate to be in such a place as this. If everyone could take care of there property, help clean up, volunteer with one of the many organizations that look after the river and valley or just be someone who can do some small part in caring for what we have here, then we can help preserve this great treasure that we call the Shenandoah River and Valley.

Thanks for following along with the blog. After the end of the journey, I will add some more images that I made along the way and show everyone some of the great views I had the privilege to witness. I would also like to thank, all the people who helped, family, friends and the property owners that allowed me to camp along the way.

It has been a great journey and I will show some more photos from the trip as I will be able to have time to edit through the thousand or so images collected along the way. Even though the journey nears its end, there will be more postings to the blog later. Thanks again.

This entry was completed by Nina Thayer.

I woke the boys up at 4:30am with breakfast and coffee ready. They ate and we loaded the van with the gear and the most important item…a sleeping Carmen. There didn’t appear to be a cloud in the sky for pictures of the sunrise from the Shenandoah River, but as I was driving back to the house I noticed that Andy very well might get some color this morning. They will see some wildlife for sure. Yesterday there was a lot of people on the river, but today being a workday for most the boys should have the river to themselves and the various animals that they will come across.

They got off without a problem this morning and I’m too hopped up on coffee to go back to sleep.

I want to give a special “thank you” to Andrew Keller who allowed us to use his beautiful property last night to take out and put back in this morning. It will be a place I remember always because that is where Carmen caught her first fish. Uncle John bought her a “big girl” fishing pole because now she is a professional fisherwoman! Thanks Uncle John.

Hopefully the boys won’t be on the river all day today. I think they are doing 12 miles and I’ll be taking them out at Morgans Ford in Warren County. At least I don’t have to cross the low water bridge! Have a wonderful day and thanks for reading along.

I just want to give a quick thanks to the Friends of the North Fork for a great dinner and cold drinks at their annual meeting. Thanks to everyone at the group for what you all are doing and to the members that help support them and all the volunteers.

I am back out for another day and this time it is to Strasburg or swamp.