After more than two weeks on the water, Margo Pellegrino arrived in Washington, DC, concluding her 500 mile paddle in support of healthy oceans legislation. 

Margo's Blog: July 16 

My last day on the Potomac was a thirty mile paddle on pretty calm waters to the Washington Canoe Club. It started around 6 am or so, thanks to my poor Aunt Carolyn who got up early to take me to the home of Dave and Gina Moore, who so kindly hosted my boat. Dave is a member of the Power Squadron, which is like the Coast Guard Auxiliary. He gave me some awesome pictures Gina had taken as well as a whistle. You can never have too many loud whistles and other noise makers on board when you're a low-lying craft. Most of the paddle was against the current. On the Potomac, though, this isn't really a big deal. It's definitely doable to paddle a long distance against the current on this river, although of course it's best to stay as close to the shore as weeds will allow. At one point a boat coming directly at me made me sufficiently nervous to seek shelter by the big metal buoy sitting in the near middle of the channel, especially since the buoy was closer to me than the weed-free edge of the channel. This is not really a good option on a river, no matter how unthreatening the current. Out on the open ocean this can be a different matter, or on the ICW (Inter-Coastal Waterway), but on a river this is not a good decision. The boat passed to my port side, and I turned my attention away from it and to the buoy in the nick of time. Two strong paddle thrusts later I was safely away from it, but the current actually picked up right where the buoy was, pushing me dangerously close to the thing. The rest of the paddle was incredibly enjoyable, though, as long as I stayed on the edge of the channel and out of the weeds. Ospreys and Bald Eagles seemed to be everywhere.

One thing that was interesting to note was that the funky chunky algae vanished from the waters a bit north of  the Occoquan. I don't know what is going on at that point of the river, but it was nice to see relatively algae-chunk free water. The waters above the Possum Point Power Plant  and the Occoquan seemed a lot cleaner, at least to the casual observer, than the waters below those areas. That last night I had been hosted by my Uncle Ron, my mother's brother, and my Aunt Carolyn, who rather recently moved to the Woodbridge area. They are soon to be grandparents and are really looking forward to the "impending event." So am I! Billy and Julia have a slight shortage of cousins. Neither my two brothers nor Carl's two brothers have children, and the prospects don't look too good, either. So we are looking forward to meeting our new arrival the minute he arrives, or rather, shortly thereafter........ 
 
I actually paddled into the elbow of the Anacostia River and the Potomac, roughly three miles from my destination, an hour and a half ahead of schedule. So I ducked into a marina and made some phone calls while security helicopters flew over my head on their tours of our historic treasures. I thought I had the last stretch "in the bag," despite a niggling feeling in my head causing me to doubt that I was 100% sure of where the Washington Canoe Club was. I should have listened to the niggling. The Washington Canoe Club was not in the channel that ran by the Potomac as I had thought, but rather up by the Key Bridge. I didn't know what the Key Bridge looked like, as I do not know DC, but now I sure do,or rather, I now know what it looks like from the water. I paddled all the way into the channel until common sense finally flooded my brain and that sinking feeling gave way to that familiar "oh @$%#" I get when I've goofed big time. I watched the gates that control the water in the channel slam shut, brought the Fuze around and paddled like hell back out of the channel. It was a pressure cooker as now I watched the miles go back up on my GPS. Once I rounded the point and paddled back into the Potomac I was about three miles from where my GPS, which I assumed (yea, never do that, you know what that means....) all along was wrong, said the Washington Canoe Club was. Now I paddled as hard as I could into a good stiff wind. So much for a relaxing last few miles....no luxuriating in success for me! It turned out my GPS was wrong after all, as it had the WCC at the wrong bridge. So it was about a mile and a half off. Not a big deal, except that the contingent of paddlers from NRDC, including Melissa Waage, Jamie Friedland, Marghie Seymour, and Sarah Krejca, had all been in the water for about an hour waiting for me. Well, at least it was a beautiful day! It was actually a pretty good ending. It always feels good after a six mile sprint and meeting friends on the water. A pretty decent closure to an event and adventure filled little "mini" paddle.