The Canoe Trip - Day 1

Here it goes, sorry it has taken so long!

Day 1

I woke up very early in the morning, and I was NOT happy. I really did not want to go on this canoe trip. I was praying that God would change my attitude and that I would be in a good mood and have fun. The ferry ride was uneventful. The first few hours of canoeing was easy. The river was beautiful, it was a nice day. My attitude started to change. Our first night was stayed right beside some gorgeous rapids. I can't remember their name, but they were the first big ones that we had to portage over. We set up and ate supper.

Some of the guys took a canoe and tried to run the rapids. They capsized right away, but they were safe. An hour or two later, I decided I wanted to swim down them! I was too scared to go first, so two of the kids went. They came out unharmed, so I decided to go to! With my lifejacket on tight, 5 of us swam out into the river, got caught in the current and floated into the rapids. It was SO FUN! We would ride the water facing forwards with our feet up, and take a huge breath right before our faces hit the white. Then for a couple seconds you would gasp for breath whenever your head was out of water. Once past the white water you just floated with the current and tried to swim back to shore. That what I did the first and second time I went.

There are three "waves" of white water that you hit and inbetween them is the undertoe and pulls you down. All in all, it probably takes like 5 seconds to get past them all. But it feels like an eternity, and you panic at first trying to get as much air as possible. The third "wave is the worst, cause it pulls you right down and twice I touch the rock on the bottom. But you know you are almost done when you get pulled under. Anyways, the third time I went I knew better. Instead of gasping for air I held my breath until I knew I was past the third wave and I would not be pulled under again so I could breath. It was so much more fun, and no panicing for air! I would have gone 1000 more times but Terry said we couldn't. It was like a natural waterslide! Here is a picture of them. We would float in the middle and hit the white water on the right side of the picture.

We had a devotional and went to bed, in our clean and dry tents. It was pretty cold that night but I had a good sleep.