June 14-15, 2004

John, the owner of DownRiver Canoe Company, picked Bear and me up at 8:00 a.m. Monday morning to shuttle us to the Shenandoah River to begin our 111 mile aqua-blaze.  Upon arrival at our drop-off point, I realized that I did not have my Exped bag which carries my credit cards, money, driver's license, cell phone, and pocketmail device.  I figured I left it inside an Enterprise rental car which was 72 miles back.  I phoned Enterprise and asked them to ship it overnight to John's canoe company where we will canoe past on Wednesday.  My Monday began and ended the same.  Without essentials.

After canoeing 18 miles on the Shenandoah River and portaging past a dam, I began to pitch my tent at a campsite when I realized that I had not packed my tent poles for my canoe trip.  Damn!  This was not good.  I used Bear's stakes and staked four sides of my tent.  I used my rope to pull up the center of my tent and we tied the rope to a tree limb.  Thank God Bear is 6'4".  And....I prayed very hard that it wouldn't rain because my rain fly was useless with my self-rigged tent.  I fell asleep before dark and slept until 8:00 a.m. Tuesday morning.

Both days canoeing on the river was breathtakingly beautiful.  Not only did I view spectacular mountain backdrops to the river which we were in, I was in the company of turtles on rocks, geese floating, ducks paddling single file, cows bathing in the river, mating dragon flies, singing birds providing the day's music, fish hurling themselves out of the water, and many more critters skimming the mirrored green water.  Bear and I went swimming each day.  Once, I floated lazily down the river in my lifejacket on another break.  The day lilies are pretty along the riverbank, the rock formations are massive and awesome!  Just like cloud formations, I could find many characters naturally carved in the rocks.  I would say, "Bear, look...there's Tony the Tiger!".  He would respond, "Uh huh."

It rained each day but I didn't care. We were already wet and we were canoeing.  We did hit some rocks and our canoe tipped just enough to begin to fill with water.  If a canoe tips, we know to get away from it. Canoes can trap a swimmer underneath.  They can weigh up to two tons in that circumstance.  Our paddles and some of our gear went floating, but Bear controlled the canoe near the riverbank until we got to our low bridge portage spot which we anticipated to be easy.  As we lifted and emptied the canoe, we decided to fill it with our gear and I would push it under the low bridge for Bear to catch.  Perfect!

We docked at John's farm where I was able to get my missing poles and Exped bag.  I pitched my tent in pouring rain and got inside.  I asked Bear who was inside his tent, "What are you doing?".  "Mopping," he said.  The inside of our tents were soaked!!  While Bear was busy mopping, I was decorating his birthday cake with 31 gummi bears and a singing candle. The cake sort of survived our two days in the canoe.  The rained eased and we ate Bear's birthday cake sitting on a canoe.  We ate the entire cake which I regretted as I tried to fall asleep.  Happy Birthday Bear....31 years old!