Canoe Trip

We are inside one month! We will be having a short meeting after church on July 26. We’ll go through the details and talk about food, supplies and the like. I’ll have a checklist of supplies and we can spread out the responsibilities across the group. Now – what to expect…

Thursday

We will hope to leave around noon on Thursday, August 13th. That will get us there (with a stop or two) around 5. Camp registration and setup. Then dinner. We do have a large spot camping spot, but we probably don’t all want to bring a 12 person tent. Jason Place Campground has a store that is pretty well stocked and not too crazily priced. Ice, snacks, and camping/river accessories are available. But I suggest you get what you need before we get there. We are 40 min away from an actual town. Cell service sucks, too. They have one pay phone which may or may not be working.

Friday

Up Friday morning with gallons of coffee and pounds of bacon. We get on the bus just before 9am and take the short 1.5 mile trip down to the General Store on the river. You can top off on ice at the campground or store. We carry all our stuff down to the river and start picking canoes. Probably a good idea to put the more experience canoers in the back – as Jay and I found out. We may have a quick stop about 50 feet from the start to look for Jay’s wedding ring. -Yeah- he and I made it 2 minutes and 50 feet last year before we tipped. First day. Awesome. Fridays are less crowded on the river than Saturdays. Both have their fun. Redneck watching on Saturdays is a hobby of mine and will quickly become one of yours as well.

This gets us in the water by about 9:30am and we’re off. The river has mainly a gentle pace, though get’s a bit quick in a few places. Within about 45 min we reach our first and, probably favorite spot, The Log. A large tree that lays parallel in knee deep water, cresting by about 1 foot above the surface. An excellent place for our first beverage of the day as well as the first jump in the water. Off the backside of the log, the water is about stomach deep and cold! We stay here for about an hour.

Back into the river, the next 2 hours are spent floating, stopping, watching the fish and friendly canoers. We arrive at Cave Spring around lunch. We spend some time standing on the ledge then jumping into the 40-60 ft deep well that cannot be above 45 degrees. Then, when we are thoroughly frozen, lunch is served. Onto a cliff jump, the corner where our rock mysteriously disappeared last year and then the scramble to Pulltite. Somehow we always get to Pulltite with less than 30 min to spare. The last bus leaves for the campground at about 6p.

After you have endured the harrowing, nausea-enducing (for more reasons than one) bus ride, it’s time for dinner. Cards will be played, perhaps a guitar or two, meat will be cooked and bellies will be filled. I will go to sleep by 9. We are in a “quiet” area of the campground, but I still suggest ear plugs. “Happy Hollow” is the party area of the campground, and though it is far away – they are insane. And loud.

Saturday

Saturday – See Friday. We do the same trip, stops and everything. I promise, you won’t mind.

Sunday

Sunday – up and off. We usually stop for Breakfast in Salem, but with this large a group, we may have to modify that. We’ll play it by ear, but I would bring some cash for that meal. Every other meal is at the camp site or on the river.

That’s all for now. I am ready.  Any questions?