the canoe trip of death: the aftermath

ok so it wasn’t awful. but it wasn’t the greatest thing ever either. would i do it again? probably not. not unless the distance is shorter and we canoe to a place with indoor plumbing, like a holiday inn. but my assumption of how it would go was pretty spot on. and my itinerary was pretty accurate too…

the actual canoeing portion of the show wasn’t bad. 26 miles is WAY too long, in my opinion. i think 15 miles is sufficient. by the time we hit around 15 miles the first day, i was ready to be done. but we still had to set up camp and then continue the trip the next day.

camping. i’ve decided i’m not a *real* camper. J says i was a good sport but that took a lot of effort. first, the bugs. THE BUGS! there are bugs and creepy crawly things EVERYWHERE!

second, the wildlife. we’re sitting around the fire at about 11:30 that night and i hear something in the woods behind me. J thinks it’s just someone walking to go to the bathroom but from what i could tell, everyone was in their tents. i shine my flashlight into the woods and i see it… the biggest raccoon i’ve ever seen. it had to weigh 30 pounds or so. J threw some rocks at it and scared it away but you could tell it was familiar with people. sometime during the night, we heard it get into a fight with some other form of wildlife. i don’t want to know what that other thing was.

third, peeing in the woods is not my thing. i mean, i’ve peed in the great outdoors before, so it’s doable. but when there’s various forms of plant life on the ground around me, i chicken out a bit. i know what poison ivy looks like so i wasn’t too worried, but you never know. how bad would that suck? i prefer a toilet. thanks.

fourth, sleeping on the ground. NOT a fan. even though it had rained earlier in the day, the ground is hard. and lumpy. and tents are cold. and it poured overnight so our tent was soaked when we had to pack it up the next morning. thankfully, it kept us dry.

fifth, the horrible pain i felt in my right arm all night from paddling. i have no idea how much advil i took in order to get the little amount of sleep i did get.

but it wasn’t all bad. it was nice doing something different and spending time with J out of our element. he really impressed me with his fire starting – wood chopping – canoeing instruction – tent building abilities. he’s a mountain man and i didn’t even know it! it was nice to spend time with his dad and grandfather too. i doubt i’ll do it again if i’m invited back next year. at least now i can say i’ve actually been camping camping, rather than trailer camping.

ugh… so many bugs…