A Trip Down the River

Zach and I decided to take a canoe trip down the Big South Fork River this past weekend. We took off on Friday after work and after loading the car and canoe. We arrived at the river access around midnight. We decided to sleep in the back of the car because it was so late. Maybe I should say attempt to sleep because I didn't do much sleeping, but that was beneficial in that I was already awake at 6am to unpack and get ready for our trip.

We unloaded everything into the canoe right by the river. Zach then drove the car to the take out point to be picked up by a canoe rental company to be brought back to me. I waited for 5 hours before Zach finally returned to me and we immediately put in the water to get going down the river.

We are guessing that we paddled about 10-11 miles the first day before finding our campground. I think I improved in choosing the right path down rapids, but that quick of a decision was difficulty for me. We set up camp, made a fire, and made dinner. After dinner, we hung all our food in a bag between two trees to keep the bears from finding us:D Because of the lack of sleep, we both slept late the next morning which is impressive to do in a tent.

The next day, we went through a lot more rapids. We had been told that the last rapid before the take out point was a class IV rapid, Devil's Jump, and that we needed to portage around. We knew we were getting close when we came upon a rapid that looked very large to us. We stopped to scope it out and see if it was Devil's Jump. There were some other canoers around and they let us know that it was not Devil's Jump and helped us make a plan how to get through the large (guessing class III) rapids. It was very exhilarating. Then it was time to portage around Devil's Jump and then take out. It was a great trip!!!

Unfortunately, Zach's digital camera is broken and so I only have a few photos to share right now. Hopefully I will be able to share more later.