We did our 2013 canoe trip and we survived in spite of many incidents that could have been dangerous and or life threatening.
Each year the trip is a challenge.
Not a bad challenge but just the idea of camping, and taking enough for a canoe trip demands a lot of planning and thought.
We stay in a campsite and set our tents up and our chairs and our food and tables and then we talk about the days out on the water.
This year the water was more swift and higher than normal.
Our guide who happens to be my husbands oldest brother was apprehensive about the waters depth and also the current was much faster than we normally try to navigate.
We left home on the fourth and arrived into camp with the idea of celebrating the fourth with each other.
We had the typical hot dog and potato salad with watermelon dinner.
It was fun and festive. Some of the ladies had brought with them red, white and blue tablecloths and pinwheels.
We shared around the camp fire and just enjoyed the time spent together until one of our guys accidentally stabbed himself with his pocket knife fortunately we had a vet with us and he did the doctoring and wrapping and it seemed to be alright.
The next day we were supposed to be on the water but the boss said it didn’t look good.
SO we went hiking, or spent the day in Sun River a resort place in Oregon.
Some had ice cream at Goody’s and others had Carmel corn.
Back at camp we talked more about the next day on the water.
That night a few of us were attacked by an internal bug and we did not feel very good.
I personally was not sure after a rough night if I could go out on the water for five or six hours.
We paced ourselves. Had some tums. Prayed. Ate some yogurt and prayed more.
Then we set off on our trip down the rivers edge.

The weather was around eighty in temperature and it was very nice.
In the beginning it was relaxing and good.
The water was much faster and the current was often working against us.
The fourth of July weekend was also not to our benefit.
Part of our ‘trip’ included many extra boats, kayaks and inter tubes tied together and in our way.
We are not accustomed to that many people on our quiet retreat on the water.
The journey became not as relaxing as we had hoped and it was also challenging to navigate away from the other people.
God was showing us many things throughout this trip.
The biggest lesson was to be flexible.