Kayak Review: Pelican Potomac Vortex 80x

The perfect kayak doesn’t exist. Modern recreational kayaks are made to handle a wide variety of water bodies and conditions. Additonally, they are designed to accomodate a wide variety of humans. As such these boats are usually ‘good enough to have fun’ for the majority of places, and never truly excellent.

Pelican Potomac Vortex 80x. Bladensburg Waterfront Park, MD. 30 August 2026.

‘Twas yet another visit to Lake Nancotchtank, and in our group was a friend of a friend who was using a Pelican Potomac Vortex 80x and let me try it out. I hopped in and the fit was perfect, so I didn’t notice any details of the foot pegs, seat adjustments, etc.  Exiting the e-z launch the kayak felt unstable, but that lack of initial stability  is coupled with generous secondary stability and not an issue at all after 30 seconds and some hip shakes. The kayak tracked very well for such a short kayak. I also thought about this being an ideal kayak for the portage to Lake Nancotchtank because I have moved 12 foot, 80 lb kayaks off trail and through brush to get there, and while worth it, the portage does take effort.

Cockpit view: Pelican Potomac Vortex 80x. Bladensburg Waterfront Park, MD. 30 August 2026.

The Potomac Vortex 80x is built upon the k108 platform, which is a mold Pelican discontinued in 2011. I am uncertain of this sit-inside kayak’s specs, but based on the paddle: 7’9″ long, 28″ wide, nice roomy cockpit, the kayak weighs less than 40 lbs and probably has a working capacity around 240 lbs. I watched this kayak while the friend was otter sliding back into the Anacostia – the same otter slide that filled my kayak with water and this kayak took on no water. However, this kayak has no bulkheads. This means that if the kayak takes on water, the entire kayak can fill up. I didn’t  test it, but modern Pelican kayaks have some foam so a swamped kayak still floats.  If this were my kayak I would test this. Basically, a good safety strategy with this kayak would be to always wear your life jacket and not paddle further from shore than you can safely swim back.

The take home is that this is a kayak that is at least 15 years old, still looks great, is fun to paddle, and relatively easy to move around when there isn’t enough water to paddle. The Potomac Vortex 80x would be a wonderful kayak for small creeks and lakes. Could the Potomac handle the Potomac river? Around DC, sometimes. The Potomac is kind of a big river and tends to be a bit windy and choppy, but on some days it could get out. The Great Falls area would be a hard no. If you pack lightly and do not weigh much, this kayak could do some overnight paddle trips. The same is true for trash hauling – this kayak would not be my first choice, but it can do some.

Depending on where you wish to paddle and how fast you wish to go (shorter kayaks are slower), this is yet another surprisingly capable recreational kayak from Pelican. If your kayaking requires portaging, hauling inside vehicles, or long walks to the put-in on smaller bodies of water this kayak could be a good choice – especially if you are paddling smaller bodies of water.

Anacostia River Water Quality Monitoring: 26 August 2026

These results are a mixed bag.

Levels of E. coli bacteria are used as indicator of fecal contamination of surface water. While E. coli can make you sick, there are other bacteria and viruses in fecal contaminated water that can also make you sick. The presence of higher E. coli levels is also associated with higher Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), higher nutrient levels, and higher turbidity – which is all expected as more poo is in the water.

I am very grateful to the both the Anacostia Riverkeeper and the WQ volunteers for devèloping and sharing these data.

A first kayak reconnaissance of the upper stretch of Quincy Run.

I have paddled the lower, accessible from the Anacostia River, portion of Quincy Run  up to the small culverts that go under the railroad tracks. I recently checked out the large trash reporter portion of http://www.EnjoytheAnacostia.org and saw there were some tires upstream of the culverts, so i had to check it out.

Enjoy the Anacostia Trash Reporter map of Quincy Run. http://www.enjoytheanacostia.org. Screenshot 13 August 2026.

We walked the kayak past the Utilities building, past the recycling center, across the railroad tracks and finally ended up at what Google Maps calls South Bladensburg Park, where we hoped to paddle and find tires. The park isn’t that inviting, but we hopped the guardrail and slid the kayak down a ravine toward what we hoped would be Quincy Run. The brush was thick, and when we got to Quincy Run we could see tires in a tiny creek that would barely float my kayak. While the trash reporter showed 3 tires, in the 100 meters of creek we covered we loaded the kayak up with 9 tires (with 3 that we will have to come back for). We then retraced our steps, carried the kayak and tires back up the ravine bank, and then loaded everything back up after coming over the guardrail, only to find the kayak was too heavy to budge on land. So I off loaded the tires from my kayak and started walking back to Bladensburg Waterfront Park.

Kayak loaded with tires from Quincy Run at the Quincy Run put-in. Bladensburg, MD. 15 August 2026.

Anacostia Riverpup and I had taken maybe ten steps when a lady pulled up and started fussing at us about the tires. I tried to explain that the tires came from the creek and were too heavy to move on foot. She was angry that the tires were on the road. When we got back to Bladensburg Waterfront Park, the park helped us out with a vehicle to move the tires, so hopefully the lady can be happy again.

Most disturbingly, the majority of these tires had a 4 digit manufacturer date codes. This means that these tires are recent additions to Quincy Run. Given the abundant tires in such a small bit of a tiny creek, there must be an active tire dump upstream. Further exploration is warranted.

How does the act of littering make people feel?

Rewritten comic strip panel depicting a debate about the feelings of a person who litters.

This is the final panel of a wonderful comic strip. Pearls Before Swine is a brilliant strip by Stephan Pastis. I highly recommend the original (5 January 2020). However, as I was enjoying the original another story popped up, so i changed some of the words.

Some thoughts on discovering a mated pair of shoes in the Anacostia River.

Shoes are not an aquatic species. On land you will often find shoes in mated pairs, in the water it is very rare to find a mated pair. I say this based on tens of thousands observations pulling trash from the Anacostia River, Interestingly with shoes mating is based upon something other than sex. In my experience, a female high-heel would never pair up with male work boot. Additionally, while some shoes have obviously male or female characteristics, some shoes do not. Crocs are an example of a shoe type without identifying sexual characteristics.

A mated pair of Teva sandals! Anacostia Riverx MD. 8 August 2026.

A recently observation of a rare aquatic mating event clearly shows that the shoes involved have a slight, but clear levorotation and dextrorotation. This may be the deciding factor in shoes determining mate acceptability. Future studies based upon this observation may elucidate if this is, in fact, the case.

Now you have a glimpse into one of life’s little secrets.

Trash into treasure: Revisited.

An actual Anacostia River artwork. Anacostia River, MD. 2 August 2026.

If you read this blog you might be aware that we remove a lot of trash from the environment, particularly the Anacostia River. Part of the reason for all of this trash is let loose into the environment is that the trash is thought to be without value. The goal behind trashmas ornaments and the rubber duck recycling is to divert a portion of the river’s trash load back into use. Toward this end, Kelly, Micheal Anthony Brown, and I have been working toward creating art from River trash.

There are problems with this, as river-found art supplies can be limiting and/or unusable. Today, instead of a river beer, the Anacostia River bestowed a wonderful art work unto me and I love it!

This artwork will be at the Bladensburg Waterfront Park Art Festival on 10 October 2026 and for sale. Artworks from rivers are pretty rare, the purchase becomes a donation to the park, and this is a bit of river history, so we will be asking a pretty penny for this unique art work. However, it will be free to enjoy this piece at our booth.

Now I realize this is not as cool as a banana duct-taped to a wall, but if you are an art collector and want to help out the Anacostia River bidding will start at $1,000,000 (USD). Let me know in the comments if you wish to bid and we can set up something with the Bladensburg Waterfront Park Manager on how payment and shipping will be handled.

Paddle Trip Report: Kent Lake, Kensington Metropark, MI.

This was a squeezed-in paddle as we were at the park for other purposes. Kent Lake is a 1200 acre reservoir on the Huron River. It was built in 1946 to provide recreation and is surrounded by Island Lake State Recreation Area and Kensington Metropark. The lake is used by sailboats, motorboats, and paddle craft, the lake has a 10 mph speed limit. The lake has a maximum depth of 36 feet.

Great blue heron. Kent Lake, Kensington Metropark, MI. 11 July 2026.

We put in (and out) at a shoreline fishing area off of Martindale Drive. There were docks there, but they were blocked off. Luckily, a kayak can launch almost anywhere. As with most lakes in the area this time of year, there is a lot of vegetation floating on the water’s surface in places with plenty of surface vegetation free zones for paddling. The water clarity was good which allowed us to watch fish  and enjoy the ubiquitous submerged vegetation. We paddled out to (and around) a small island, but there was no easy landing to explore.

Mute Swan. Kent Lake, Kensington Metropark, MI. 11 July 2026.

All in this was a pleasant spot to paddle. We were there on a weekend, so the place was a bit crowded and noisy, there were eight other kayaks, a sail boat, and a row boat out on this part of the lake.

While not a destination, if you are in the area (and have the $10 entrance fee) this is a place you should consider paddling.

Trip Report: Warren Dunes State Park, MI.

This is a beautiful and heavily-used Michigan State Park. There is a $12 park entry fee, which is not included in the $45 camping fee (with an $8 reservation fee). Even though you paid on line and to get in the campground makes you go into the office to check in to your site. The ranger was not very pleasant, which seemed odd – but c’est la vie. She stamped all of my paperwork with a big “NO ALCOHOL ALLOWED” stamp.

Warren Dunes State Park, Mount Hamilton  Campground. , MI. 5 July 2026.

Then we drove to the campsite, I was not prepared for the crush of so many people in so little space. Our campsite was ridiculously tiny. Of course the previous camper left their trash for us to enjoy. Behind the campsite was a large seepage – we were truly limited to our postage stamp sized campsite. After we got our tent up we walked to the bathroom which was disgusting (smelly and dirty). So we left the campsite of despair and went to the beach. We got back to camp after dark (quiet hours at 10 pm), and the campground was still buzzing with human activity. Of course the trains and highway did not follow the quiet hours. At 1:30 am I had to ask our camp neighbors to shut down the speakers. We woke up at dawn and turned to each other and said: “let’s get out of here”.

Warren Dunes are beautiful. Lake Michigan is amazing. This park is worth a visit. Stay for the sunset. I had an extremely bad experience camping here and can not recommend camping here.

Anacostia River Water Quality Monitoring: 22 July 2026

The Anacostia Riverkeeper monitoring team monitored the main stem on the river on July 22nd. 6 out of 8 sites failed to meet recreational standards (> 410 MPN), meaning that we should all be very careful if recreating in the watershed this weekend.

Levels of E. coli bacteria are used as indicator of fecal contamination of surface water. While E. coli can make you sick, there are other bacteria and viruses in fecal contaminated water that can also make you sick. The presence of higher E. coli levels is also associated with higher Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), higher nutrient levels, and higher turbidity – which is all expected as more poo is in the water.

I am very grateful to the both the Anacostia Riverkeeper and the WQ volunteers for devèloping and sharing these data.

Pack Raft Review: NRS Pulsar XL.

NRS Pulsar XL, Lookout Creek, GA. 27 June 2026.

The NRS Pulsar XL is a 10.8 lb inflatable pack raft with a 300 lb load rating. It is 8 feet long and 36.5 inches wide. There are two inflation chambers: the perimeter tube and the floor. Both chambers are dual TPU coated nylon with welded seams. The perimeter tube has a T-zip which allows gear storage inside the tube. The entire raft rolls up into a grocery bag. Based on past experience with NRS products, you expect NRS stuff to work well and hold up over time.

Anacostia Riverpup enjoying the front deck of the NRS Pulsar XL. Fort Payne City Lake, AL., 27 June 2026.

We used a hand pump to inflate the raft and the perimeter tube requires quite a bit of air – just enough that you notice the process, but not so much it is a barrier to fun. I have set up and packed up the Pulsar XL 10+ times now and feel the inflation sweet spot is hit: enough hand pumping that when you are done pumping the kayak is inflated. If the kayak is not inflated when you are done pumping – that is way too much air and you won’t use the kayak as the set up is too exhausting. Of course an electric pump solves inflation exhaustion issues.

The cockpit is very cozy/comfy. Anacostia Riverpup fits in, loads into the raft without hesitation, and can even use the front deck just fine. At this point I have used the Pulsar XL in Lake Michigan surf, other lakes, creeks, and rivers.

This is a pack raft. The seating, cockpit feel, and paddling feel very kayak-esque. This pack raft is about as fast as our Itiwit inflatable kayak, tracks as well, is more maneuverable, while also easier to to store and transport. The time from car to water is the same, but the lack of a fabric skin is a game changer for much faster pack up time. The downside is this pack raft, while having in tube space for camping gear, is limited for trashyaking purposes as the tube interior can only be accessed when deflated.

I have really enjoyed this raft so far and look forward to many future paddles.