Santa Fe Paddle: Can I Do Anything?

The next few months were a whirlwind of physical therapy, gym time, shopping, beach, and relaxing with my old high school friends. The most I exerted myself was bouncing between running and abs sessions at the gym and weights at physical therapy. I slowly regained my range of motion and started building up strength with weight training. By the time I returned to Gainesville, I was beyond ready to go on an OAR trip. The first trip of the semester was a paddle on the Santa Fe. I thought this would be the perfect way to ease back into adventure: if I couldn't paddle, the rest of my boat would take up the slack and I wouldn't have to carry any gear. It was also only a day trip so I was free to do whatever I wanted for the rest of the weekend.

My boat consisted of Michael, Carolanne, and Brice. We headed downstream, stopping of at countless springs to swim. We met Naked Ed, the legendary keeper of Lily Springs. I chose not to talk to him and therefore did not see any nakedness. Naked Ed is an old man who sits on a dock in front of the spring, completely naked, virtually every day. We played with a giant inflatable ball on the shore (away from Ed) and then headed further downstream. The wildlife was incredible; I don't think I've ever seen that many turtles in my entire life. We made it down in record time with two other boats. The others were about an hour behind, so we decided to leave for dinner and Gainesville, returning with some daylight still left.

Events occurred: August 24, 2013