I've learned on this trip that to truly open yourself to the experience, you must learn to accept the filth. I smell bad, my hair is dreading, I have cuts and bruises all over my body and I am having the best time of my life.
Happiness was found this morning when I woke up on a beautiful horse ranch listening to the birds outside singing. I'm getting used to being the first one awake in the mornings. I like the quiet and if you wake up right as the sun begins to warm the earth you can see this beautiful mist rising up off the.river.
This morning at Dana's farm I had the pleasure of washing my face in a sink and using a real bathroom. So quickly do we all forget how convenient modern facilities are, a porta potty has become luxury to us.
This morning we had pancakes for breakfast and even the latest of risers were up with their plates ready. We didn't get on the water until around 10:30. This was one of our longer days, 24 miles. I think our longest day is a 27 mile paddle. The river was beautiful, as always. We had a little rain but luckily, later in the afternoon, the sun came to warm us up.
Lunch was interesting today, all 15 of us were crammed on a tiny beach attempting to make veggie pita sandwiches, I opted for some PB&j - it was a peanut butter kind of day.
Our final take out was at the Boones Cave Park. It's a pretty small cave to have such a large park named after it but I must admit the surrounding area is beautiful. The take out was pretty steep so we left the boats in the water, tied to a tree, and hauled all of our gear up a massive wood staircase up to the pavilion where we would be spending the night.
We had fried macaroni and cheese with veggies for dinner. I swear I eat better on this trip than I ever did in the school cafeteria. Compared to yesterday, today was pretty relaxed. Once dinner was over we had a short briefing on what tomorrow would bring and then everyone broke out the sleeping bags and hit the hay. An employee of the park came by earlier to tell us to watch out for coyotes and bobcats. I set up my hammock with hopes of seeing some pretty cool wildlife tonight.
Well, it is late and we have an early morning tomorrow. So far the trip has far exceeded my expectations and I can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring.
- Chelsea
