Whitewater: April Showers Bring Class V Rapids

May flowers are swell, but there’s something a bit more exciting that is also brought by April showers, along with a final snowmelt. That would be lots of water, which flows into rivers and streams across the northern hemisphere, turning them into wonderfully wild rides for kayakers and rafters. This piece, which ran in the New York Times in May of 2004, tells of the thrills that await at one of the more popular kayaking spots in the mid-Atlantic: the Potomac River, just four miles upriver from Georgetown. Don’t be smug. The Times reports that this stretch of class V rapids has national and Olympic whitewater canoe and kayak champions, including Cathy Hearn; her brother, David; Dana Chladek; Joe Jacobi; and Jamie McEwan.