This trip has been on my radar for a couple years after seeing pictures of my buddy’s canoe trip on the Cacapon River but I haven’t been able to pull it off. I needed at least 3 people to go, so we could manage the boats at both ends of the run.

The Cacapon River is a beautiful river that flows north for 65 miles toward the Potomac. We did 11.4 miles on a beautiful but cool fall day (more on that later). There are beautiful water run-offs (I can’t call them waterfalls) and amazing rock formations, including Caudy’s Castle.

The water is calm for most of the run, but there are 3 distinct ledges and some other riffles that make the run interesting. We did ok on the ledges for the most part but my 14-foot touring kayaks didn’t fair well in the riffles. I got sideways against a rock and started going backwards. When I tried to turn around the water caught me and I went over. First time tipping in rapids. The cool temps and the almost 20 mph winds made for a chilly finish to the trip.

I can’t find evidence of any places to camp along the river and much of the section we did went through private farmland. I’ll definitely look into that for future runs.