We were on the river for 11 hours today, leaving our idyllic asylum at 6 am. It seems we are more apt to get going early in morning on the first days of our trip. As the days go on, our bodies grow weary and achy, and we lose sleep in the night, it is much more difficult to get going that early. We made several stops for meals or walking around. We were pleased to have had a rain-free day as the weather report was dubious. We managed 32 miles so we are ahead of our goals and that is good as we never know what we may run into than could slow us up.
We may get some thunderstorms tonight and early morning, but we expect to be back out on the river for mostly a nice day. Saw numerous does with fawns – so cute! They are always out on the river banks early in the morning. We also saw 5-6 bald eagles and a very wet raccoon crawling out of the water. We camped on an island and arrived early enough to really enjoy relaxing.
Over the years we have camped in all sorts of conditions and found, by and large, that we can manage most conditions for a night. This year we learned that what looked to be uncomfortable turn out to be quite comfortable: sleeping right on a bed of small, smooth river stones. With our camping maps, the stones became a good foundation for sleep.
Of course, an important part of our paddling is our stops along the way to find interesting history or, in many cases, to seek out refreshment! And we were also able to charge our cell phones.
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