It’s spring break for me and my kids, the weather is fleetingly perfect, high of 79, calling for rain all day tomorrow. The world is lime green. And I live in Roanoke, where I can roll out of bed at 8 a.m.; load up my family in two cars; drive an hour north on one of the most beautiful sections of the Blue Ridge Parkway (when enough trees are still missing their leaves the views are humbling); drop my husband, one son and two dogs off on the Appalachian Trail for an overnight hike; then take my older son through some class II and III river; and still be home by 4. Oh, and that includes lunch at a country restaurant that hasn’t changed its décor since 1955. If the A.T. hike hadn’t been a male bonding trip, I could have also parked back at the Snowden bridge after lunch, leisurely hiked south on the A.T. and joined the rest of my family at their campsite for dinner, but I restrained myself. How many places in this country can you have a day like this? Hopefully, someday my children will appreciate this place as much as we former big city suburbanites have.

We left my son’s station wagon at the parking lot at the Snowden A.T. bridge over the James River on 501, then headed on to Glasgow. The Glasgow boat ramp is the first left after the Maury River bridge into Glasgow via 310.  Feeling a little trepidation about the water temperature since we were about to ride a bit of whitewater on sit-on-top kayaks in early spring, we plunged in, literally, since you start off with a class III rapid 25 yards from the parking lot. The water turned out to be just invigorating. The air temperature kept us from getting chilled even though there were plenty of waves washing over our bows. I can’t give you advice on the best angle to hit the first rapid at the confluence of the Maury and James. I went through the abrupt left hook rather ungracefully, but stayed on my boat. It is recommended that you go through the tight slot right of center. But, sit-on-tops don't fit through tight slots, so I tried something else. That’s what our message board is for. Someone with more experience, let us know.

I know why there are few photos that capture the dripping excitement of a kayaking trip.  Your boat always turns you away from your carefully composed photo, the sunning turtles always slip into the water right before you snap, and when you capture your friend coming through some nice whitewater, you suddenly find yourself butt into the next class II. If you’re trying to capture the chops coming over your bow, you’ve obviously been out in the sun too long, because you’ve stopped steering and are about to lose your paddle altogether (and maybe your camera too). So, all the photos you see here of the Glasgow to Snowden section of the James were taken in the calm sections.

This section narrows as the James cuts through the mountains, and that means plenty of whitewater and dramatic mountain scenery. There are several more class IIs, and on a sit on top, we go for the most turbulence since we are less likely to be bothered by the rocks a few inches below. There is a nice class II right before class III Balcony Falls, where I lost my water bottle, because I forgot to clip it back in and a wave washed it away. This is my first time doing this section, and I knew we had reached Balcony Falls when I saw my son’s head suddenly drop out of view. You probably want to go through Balcony Falls via the left chute, with its gentle curve, or the recommended right chute. My son, a fearless mountain biker, however, wanted to “get some air” and went right over the balcony. Just like when biking, hope you have enough speed. He did fine. I don’t think he could have done that with less water in the river, however.

After Balcony Falls there are just two more rapids and the rest ripples and then flatwater with the wind blowing upstream. But, the flatwater and the wind did not last so long that we were annoyed. We must have seen 70 turtles sunning themselves on rocks. Some were also mating, I’m pretty sure. I was able to count 20 at one spot and one other group had twice as many, with several smaller sunning spots. A deer ran parallel to us along a riverside path. We saw Canada Geese, mallards and I swear I heard a wood duck. More than one butterfly landed on me.

We pulled our boats out right past the railroad bridge, which is right past the Snowden A.T. bridge. If you go any farther you will be in danger of going over one of several dams that keep the James from being in a class with the New.

This is a nice, short, fun intermediate whitewater trip. Any tamer, and I’m not sure an 18-year-old boy could stand the boredom.  If you are not on a forgiving sit-on-top, or if the water is higher, or lower, you might need some advanced experience.  Wear your PFD, don’t sit on it.

USGS gage the day of this trip: 5.2 and falling.   Print out a map of the rapids (courtesy of the James River Canoe Livery). For wonderful details, photos, video and suggested chutes, check out this wonderful streamkeeper page for this section.

Anne Pfeiffer