At 5:30 am the alarm signaled for us to wake up. An early start for a Saturday! We were headed to Adventures Unlimited, which is roughly an hour's drive from our house. At first we thought to pick up some subs from Subway but then realised that their "open for breakfast" was more like 9am than 5am. As a last resort, we stopped at Wal-Mart and picked up two Italian Subs and three turkey sandwiches so that we had food for breakfast and lunch.
As Larry reserved a spot for us in the first ride starting at 8am we had to move our behinds to get their on time with all our dawdling. However, God smiled upon us at Wal-Mart when we were waiting in one of three open tills out of 20! We were in a bit of a hurry at that point and the gentleman in front of us offered for us to go in front of us as he was in no
hurry. Mind you, it's shortly after 7am at this point. Then, the lady in front of him did the same and we thanked them all very kindly before rushing out of there.Finally, we reached our destination and registered. There was another couple waiting and then a group of children. Lots of squeaky-voiced little boys at that testy age. The only other group was a bunch of guys from up North. It took about 20 minutes for the place to get everyone registered, paddled and life-jacketed before Larry and I and the other couple were driven 20 minutes up the road to the drop-off point for the 11-mile journey down the Coldwater Creek. We were excited!
I haven't canoed in eleven years and for Larry it has also been a while. I was to sit in front. That early in the morning (no coffee, no breakfast) it is very difficult to acquaint yourself to a new concept with much success. I pointed out to Larry that the front he instructed me to get into was clearly the back because of the difference in leg space. I am SO glad I paid attention to that detail because 11 miles can be quite long on your back and legs.
The driver told us that the journey could be completed in 3.5 hours with no stopping. I was convinced that it would take Larry and I all day and that I would be ready for a break after fifteen minutes or less - that we would be one of those overambitious couples.
Finally we were off. Canoeing is a wonderful "team-building exercise". Larry and I noticed this in the first hour of our trip when we ended up in the trees due to a lack of CO-operation. It was actually quite humourous, though. We wish we could have had someone videotaping our drift into the trees and the river bank.
We were coming around the bend and both of us were paddling wrong so we couldn't turn fast enough. I resigned myself when I knew it was too late to turn and all I could think of was to fall back and squeak out some protest. I remembered Teri telling me that snakes like to hang in the trees after a lot of rain, so getting stuck in the trees after all the rain from Tropical Storm Faye was not as comforting.
After extracting ourselves laughingly we decided to head for the nearest little beach and have breakfast.
The Coldwater Creek is actually not that cold. Compared to the Gulf of Mexico, which is like bathwater at this time of the year, it is actually quite cold. In the fist part of our journey we discovered the creek to be very pebbly. Due to the immense rain the mud was all sleek and the water slightly murky, but not too deep. For the most part you could stick your paddle down into the soil and still have a few handfuls left.
The beaches on the creek are nothing more than a sandy embakment on either the right or left side - at parts rocky, shrubby or just sandy.
What an experience, though! I have never been somewhere with no communications or people around me. Just silence. The creek babbling with the little bit of a current; the tweet of birds in the trees; the buzzards with their bent beaks and white-tipped wings circling the tree-tops up above.
We didn't find ourselves completely alone for too long, though. The couple that set off with us to the drop point apparently collected two more people and we never saw them again. We came across another couple that must have spent the night (overnight trip - all I can think of is being carried away by mozzies) with their dog. The man was paddling a canoe by himself while the lady kayaked. I can't imagine trying to steer the big canoe by myself, though. I would be in every tree!
Our first true obstacle came a little later in the trip when we came across a tree that had fallen over the creek. We first thought we could just duck and paddle through, so when Larry said, "Can you duck?", I didn't wait but ducked and subsequently we crashed into the tree. Funny # 2. We actually had to disembark and push the canoe through. Luckily the water is nice and cleanish.
We had been informed that there would be another body of water flowing into the creek and that we just had to look out for it. I never saw it - must have been an easy one...
Our second marker would be the four-mile marker. We assumed we had gone four miles. The marker was a bridge with four spaces all cluttered with tree stumps. We were not able to just paddle through so Larry decided to get out of the canoe and pull us through. Funny # 3 was him nearly hitting the pole of the bridge head-on while falling out of the canoe instead of gracefully exitting. Beer anyone?
After the bridge we encountered the tubers. People that came for one purpose only: to lazily cruise down the creek on a tube with a beer in hand and, yes, they got in the way a lot.
The final marker we were to look out for was a split in the water. The left would be shorter but with more tree stumps and the right longer with less obstacles. Well, this trip has been nothing but obstacles. We were constantly trying to avoid canoeing into tree stumps, logs, trees, etc. So, we took the right, easy route.At this point we out paddled most of the tubers and the sun was starting to become viscious. Lucky for us we had SPF 50 and we actually had to reapply quite regularly. I also became a fan of Ziploc bags for these trips. As you can see I took some pics with my camera phone because I didn't want to take my expensive camera and risk ruining it.
The last few miles of the trip were the best to me as the water was now less rocky, deeper and wider. There was an increased calmness at this point and I found myself wishing the trip never to end.
At 12:15 We decided that we would stop and have lunch on the next shady beach. A few bends later we reached a STOP Adventures Unlimited sign which signaled the end. We had completed our journey in four hours. Not bad for first-timers!! Next time we are doing the 15-mile trip - oh, and we are getting backrests and ziplocing everything.
On our way to dinner that night Larry and I prayed that God would just send plenty of hot, dry air into the hurricane to diffuse it. The next morning we saw that the eye had been broken up precisely because hot, dry air had blown into it. WoW!!!! God is good.
On Sunday I paid for my over-zealous paddling. My back, triceps, biceps, abs and thigh muscles all hurt! So, I did very little but lounge around except for keeping an eye on Hurricane Gustav which was pin-pointed as going into Louisiana, west of New Orleans.
The poor New-Orleans residents were mandatorily evacuated for this storm, which I believe was very wise after what happened in Katrina. A mandatory evacuation is issued when the officials believe that "riding the storm out" is unwise. If you choose to stay they put your name on a list and if they cannot find you after the storm, they consider you dead. Not so lekker!
Monday we awoke to a strong breeze and plenty of rain. Pensacola basically had a Tropical Storm which is not bad. All you need to do is ensure that anything that can be lifted off the ground is secured or put away so as not to turn them into projectiles.
I am happy to say that the levees held and that we are all safe. Good job to the Mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, and his team. They did an excellent job.
As for us, we are now keeping an eye on and praying about Hurricane Hannah, Tropical Storm Ike and Tropical Depression # 10 which will become Tropical Storm Josephine soon.
We will keep you updated.
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