Song of the day: Use Somebody by The Kings of Leon
I decided to write this entry like a book, with very short, titled chapters. Enjoy.
1. Intro
Last Sunday, Josh and I went on a canoe adventure on the Taunton River. We had decided a while before that we wanted to go canoeing, but didn't decide on the place until the day of the trip. We had options - Sabbatia Lake, Watson's Pond, Lake Rico, Taunton River, and others I'm sure - but we just couldn't decide. We finally agreed to go on the river; we would go upriver until we got tired then turn around and float back. Good plan!
2. The Launch
The first struggle of the day was attaching the canoe to the truck. We were taking his dad's truck because it had canoe racks in the back. We grabbed the canoe from the backyard (funnily enough, the same exact kind of canoe I use at camp) and muscled it up onto the racks. From then on we were just confused. He didn't really know how to use the canoe racks so we had to go ask his sister. She helped us tighten the sides and we put straps over the top. It seemed fine. It wasn't. By the time we were driving past THS the boat was perched precariously on the racks. We pulled over and realized that we had kind of failed miserably at the tying it down part. We figured out what was wrong though and fixed it, and made it to our launch point.
We decided to launch in East Taunton, near the River Bend Condominiums. We parked the truck and hauled the canoe down to the river. We got in with no problems. Josh sat in the front and I sat in the back and steered. And off we went!
3. The Softball
So we're paddling along, discussing how the whole river looks the same, and I see something floating in the river. I thought it was trash at first. On the way by I realized it was a softball floating along with the current. I decided I wanted it. Josh and I canoed backwards for a minute and caught up to it. I picked it up and was excited. Then I accidentally dropped it back in the river. But I managed to grab it again. Success. It was a really dirty softball with one side of the stiches gone. I don't really know what to do with it, but it's very cool. "First souvenir of the trip!"
4. The Cows
After canoeing for a while, past the first bridge, Josh said, "is there something in that tree? a person?" I was confused, but as we got closer realized there was indeed something moving around in a tree on the riverbank. Come to discover that it was a cow! Several cows, in fact. Black cows, chilling underneath this tree. They looked at us with crazy eyes and kind of followed us as we went by. They were on the edge of a field but they walked in the field along with us until we were out of their range. It was a little freaky but pretty cool.
5. The Unidentified Creature
At one point, I don't remember when exactly, we were paddling lazily up the river when we noticed some bubbles. These were no ordinary bubbles. These bubbles seemed to be coming from underwater in a straight line, as if something was swimming below the surface creating them. We watched as the bubble path was appearing, but nothing ever popped up to claim them. Weirdddddd.
6. WHERE ARE WE?!
Since Josh and I both have terrible senses of directions, we pretty much had no idea where we were the whole time. We asked that question many times but of course never got an answer. A few times we paddled by someone's backyard or something and hoped they would be outside so we could ask. No dice. I even stood up once to look around but couldn't figure it out.
In case you're wondering, here's a map of our trip:
We followed that white line with the red dots from the lower lefthand corner to the upper righthand corner, then back down. Along the way we saw lots of turtles sunbathing, and many of them jumped off their perches when we approached. It was cool. I like turtles.
7. The Bridge
After canoeing upriver for a while, before we met the cows, we came upon a bridge. We weren't really sure where it was but we did notice that current moved much faster in that area. It was really tiring actually, getting to the bridge. I had to take a little break after we got past the really fast part. The same thing happened when we got to the second bridge, where we turned around. The second bridge was on 44, and we saw a sign on the road that said "Welcome to Raynham." Turns out we canoed 2.44 miles up the river from our original starting point. That took about 80 ish minutes. The return trip with the current took about 50.
8. The Sparrow
After we turned around we decided to relax a little and let the river carry us back. For a while there was a sparrow flying above us among the trees. This little sparrow seemed to be having the time of its life. It wasn't going anywhere that we could tell or trying to do anything in particular. It was just flying around for the fun of it, diving and swerving all around. It was so neat. I'd like to be happy and careless like that sparrow.
9. The Geese
About halfway down on the way back, we spotted some birds swimming in a row ahead of us. We kind of thought it was a mommy bird and her babies. Josh got really excited... apparently he likes ducks. Anyway, it turned out to be a flock of geese. They seemed to all be adults, or at least almost full grown. We caught up to them while they were swimming and then watched them swim to the bank and have a party. It looked like a party, anyway. They were all eating grass from the riverbank, and a couple got out of the water to go up a little further. They all seemed to be having a grand old time eating the grass together. I guess it was a good day to be a bird!
10. Making It Interesting
"Let's try to slide under that tree over there."
"Why?"
"Well, if we're on an adventure, we might as well make it adventurous."
"Good point."
We had to go limbo style to get under the tree limb. It was awesome.
11. The Auctioneer
When we were almost back to our starting point, we thought we heard a voice. It sounded like somebody talking about money very loudly. Finally Josh suggested that it was an auction. Upon closer listening it definitely was. We went down a little sidepath from the river to see if we could get closer, but we couldn't find this auction. We could hear it though. There were too many trees and riverbank in the way to see anything. It felt like we were sneaking around and spying, but we were just curious. hahaha. It was sweet though and I wish I knew what kind of auction it was. Can you imagine canoeing up to an auction? and bidding on something? ahahaha it would have been great.
12. The End
After over 2 hours and about 5 miles of canoeing, we made it back to our starting point. We pulled the boat up with no problem, attached it (properly) on the first try, and made it back to Josh's. It was kind of struggle to get the boat off the truck and over the fence back into the yard, but it wasn't too bad. It was such a fun trip!!
We had burgers for dinner (delicious) and watched the movie Italian Job. I had never seen it but it's one of Josh's faves and I will say that I was definitely not disappointed. I thought it was a great movie.
Sunday was such a good day. : D
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