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

Midnight Paddle on the Santa Fe

Within 48 hours of returning to Florida, I found myself driving down to Gainesville to go on a typical OAR night paddle. Mike texted me the day before and I drove down with no hesitation. I met him at his apartment and we proceeded to the Gear Shed, where Bevin was ready to throw a canoe on top of her SUV. We picked up Nina and Kendall, then headed to the Santa Fe River. Squishing five people into a canoe is quite the OAR specialty. We paddled upstream for a long period of time, barely moving against the current. Getting back to the car took virtually no time because the water was moving so swiftly that we didn't even have to paddle. We heard voices around our car and panicked. We tried to approach slowly in case it was a band of thieves or murderers or something. We saw floodlights though, and realized it was the police. They saw our car and thought it was abandoned or something, so they just wanted to make sure we were ok. We thanked them as we loaded our canoe and then headed home. 

Events occurred: May 8, 2013