Day Paddle On The Suwannee

After the off roading adventure, I decided to take a break and spend some time in Jacksonville with my family. The following day, however, was Labor Day and thus it was school-free. So, the same band of merry idiots from the off roading trip decided to go out for a day paddle on the Suwannee River, anticipating horrible weather and general misery. 







Never before have I experienced such great weather for a paddling trip. We explored an old bridge covered in graffiti for a bit, then hopped in one canoe. Yes, all five of us were in one canoe. It was a tight squeeze and the boat barely cleared the water but we made it. We paddle upstream for a while, stopping off at some sand bluffs to swim. Then, we found a beach and stopped off for lunch. I had brought my inflatable shark and an inner tube. I blew them up, which took forever, and then we swam around with them. Mike, Logel, and Chelsea tried to escape with the boat and the shark but I grabbed the inner tube and dove in after them. Kelsey was right behind me. I caught up to the boat and flung myself over the side of the boat. We tied the inflatable shark off the back of the canoe with some paracord and Kelsey rode the shark most of the way back. We all relaxed, letting the current pull us. Then, we spotted the dark thunderclouds that we had anticipated and started to paddle toward shore, packing up the canoe and gear right as the rain started up. We made it out of there just in time.


That night, after a shower and sunburn assessment (I was disappointingly still pale), I headed over to Mike's apartment sans Kelsey. She supposedly had homework to do. Excuses, excuses. Mike and I played Halo on the XBox for about an hour when Logel showed up and took over for me. It was fun but I was pretty terrible at it. Chelsea soon joined and the two of us playing Halo was a disaster. We died every 10 seconds or so, getting lost and confused along the way. It was still a lot of fun but not my forte. 

Events occurred: September 2, 2013

The Return to Bob's

As I've mentioned numerous times before, Bob's River Place on the Suwannee is a magical place. When my friend Chris returned home from MIT for the summer, he brought back two friends, Adam and Leslie. Neither of them had experienced Florida before so Chris set out to show them the best of Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. Obviously, this meant a trip to Bob's. Since there were six of us (me, Chris, Leslie, Adam, Lloyd, and Ryan), we piled into my mother's mini van and headed west. 

We arrived at Bob's and immediately headed for the rope swings. The slides were also open this time, unlike the first time I went to Bob's when most everything was closed down. I finally faced my fears and attempted to jump off of Demon, the highest rope swing. Luckily, it was a total success. Everyone shouted for me to jump at the perfect moment, when he swing reached its peak and, despite my intense fear, I let go and dropped into the water. The water rushed up so quickly, pulling my hair towards the surface. I emerged and started swimming as quickly as possible toward the shore, since the current was swift and I saw the kid behind me in line getting ready to jump. I also braved the slides for the first time. The taller one was actually less intense because the end of it was about a foot or so off the water. Therefore, you just slide right off the end and into the water. The other one, however, ended in the water because the water levels on the river were so high. Thus, as I was sliding down, gaining speed, I just abruptly stopped while still on the slide. Not the most comfortable...

While at Bob's, we also played beach volleyball. The court had been filled with water and we were all terrible. I had difficulty playing because of my past shoulder injury but that was mostly just an excuse; None of us could really play. We cheered at the thought of keeping the ball in the air for multiple passes and eventually gave up. At some point, Cameron met up with us from Orlando and we all took turns trying to cross Bob's log roll and battling each other. We also partook in karaoke, joined by a random little girl who was at Bob's with her family and really liked to sing Taylor Swift. We stayed at Bob's until he closed down at six and then we headed to get dinner. While driving home, Chris and I noticed that the van was shaking a bit more than normal but I knew that it shook at higher speeds so I ignored it. I discovered the next morning, when my mom drove it and realized something was wrong, that one of the tires had separated and we almost lost a tire on the highway. I have since learned to pay more attention to cars.  

The Shortest OAR Trip Ever

The weather was not in my favor in February. The climbing trip to Sand Rock was cancelled because it was going to be too cold, so Jeff decided we would hike along the Suwannee River in Florida instead. We met around 9 AM on Saturday morning and shuffled into cars, heading about an hour away for our hike. While I was shuttling people from one end of the trail to the other, I ran over something in the middle of the road. When I stopped to pay for the park entrance fee, someone noticed gasoline leaking from my car. I had split my gas tank all the way down. We tried to patch it with gum but we were unsuccessful. The park rangers were very helpful but they informed me that I needed to move the car asap because gasoline is bad for the environment. I called AAA and they were useless. I was very disappointed with their lack of help and I called my mom in a panic. Luckily, her friends had a hitch and a dolly, so they drove from Jacksonville to get me. 

The OAR kids waited patiently even though I urged them to go ahead and hike without me. It started to rain and it was cold outside, so we all huddled under a park pavilion for warmth and dryness. They waited until my mom was less than 10 minutes away. I ended up home and carless for the weekend, my OAR adventure only lasting a few hours.

Events occurred: February 16, 2013 

Paddling in January, Welcome to Florida.

Compared to a weekend in El Salvador, I thought a paddling trip down the Suwannee River would be a nice, low key adventure. Once again, I underestimated OAR. The nice part about paddling trips is leaving Saturday morning rather than Friday night. Instead of arriving at 3 AM and waking up only a few hours later, I get to enjoy a good night's sleep in my own bed and I don't have to get to the Gear Shed until 8 AM. There were a lot of people on this trip because we split it into a day paddle and an overnight paddle, combining two trips into one large group. The first day, we spent a lot of time on the shore initially. I climbed a lot of giant limestone formations, most of which crumbled in my fingers. After paddling for barely any time, we came across a large bridge. It was coated in graffiti and lacked traffic, foot or car. Instead of merely looking at the bridge and admiring it from afar, we decided to build a zipline. I had never ziplined before and the thought terrified me: stepping off the edge of the bridge and zooming down toward the ground at an uncontrollable speed. The combination of height and lack of control was more than enough for me to say no, yet I found myself pulling on a harness and clipping myself to the rope. 

OAR has this incredible ability to convince me that I should ignore all of my fears and embrace spontaneity. The nonchalant attitudes of Frank and Jeff, who both went on the zipline before I did, forced me into thinking that my fears were irrational. Again, I have no regrets though I am surprised at my willingness to do something so dangerous. If all of your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do it too? Well, if Jeff and Frank did it and they both survived with no problems, I guess I would and have (only if a harness or other safety gear is involved). We did this for a while and then continued down the river, stopping periodically to swim, to climb the limestone, and to jump off of trees or rope swings. 

The campsite Jeff found for us along the Florida Trail is not accessible by car, only by hiking or from the water. It was awesome, a luxury compared to our usual campsites. We slept in covered gazebo-type structures (no mosquitoes, thank goodness) and there were heated bathrooms including showers. Our group decided to have a potluck dinner, everyone sharing food with one another. As per usual at the beginning of the semester, there were a lot of new OAR members that would now be considered regulars. The next day, we continued our relaxing paddle with several more stops along the way, returning home before dark. 

Events occurred: January 21-22, 2012