The Official Batteau Festival web page

Day 8: Cartersville to Maiden's Landing

by Tom Bowman

The final day of the James River Batteau Festival, was a 17 mile run to the Richmond takeout at Maiden's Landing. First we had a couple of awards and group pictures taken, including all of the remaining kayakers, canoeists, and the one remaining paddleboarder. I took off early to get to vantage point to see the batteaux getting underway. I left with a group of five batteaux. As they proceeded along, the Lizzie Langley and Mary Marshall took off to a big lead. They say this isn't a race but you couldn't tell with these two. Mary Marshall was using four pole men, with a steady fast pace. Lizzy Langley slipped back and I stayed on their tail. The Goochland rescue boats, kept an eye out for us river rats. I thanked the one that was close enough to talk with. As we got closer to Richmond, more and more floaters appeared. In a funny incident, Meagan jumped over the side of the Mary Marshall and walked back in the middle of a shallow river towards the Lizzie Langley. They picked her up, and she gave us the scoop on Kevin and Seabass on the Mary Marshall. A whole squadron of micro-kayakers, paddleboarders came out to welcome us. A canoeist paddled upstream quite a ways to check out the batteaux. One group had a giant inflateable unicorn, which Dylan on the Lizzie Langley quipped, they needed for next year. Mary Marshall kept the pace going and was the first to reach the Maiden's Landing ramp and get their batteau out of the water. The trailers required are massive, as are the trucks to pull them. Our usual support team, Jen selling t-shirts for JRBF and Dr. Bill Trout, selling the maps that point out the features of all the rivers and canals of Virginia. It was a great adventure, and am looking forward to doing it again, Father's Day weekend next year!