Every freshman at SAU is taking a class called CORE. Basically what it is, is a get to know you class, and sets you up with an immediate core group of friends so that your freshman year is less scary. Luckily for me, my Core has 8 soccer girls so we already came in as friends. As part of the class, throughout the fall all the cores go to a farm up in Northern Michigan called Cedar Bend. This past weekend was my Core's turn.
We left early Thursday morning on a charter bus. With no phones or watches, I have no clue what time we actually got to the farm. As soon as we got there we put our stuff in this old school house that was on the property, that was where we were sleeping in the first night. Then we headed to the river to begin our canoeing trip.
Now just to preface this, earlier in our core class our instructors asked us all how skilled we were at canoeing. I gave myself a 3 or 4 out of 5. I had been canoeing on a lake and down rivers a couple times. So we get to the river and each canoe has three people to it, two rowers and one person sits in the middle. I volunteer to be the back rower. (Mistake #1) Me and my partner volunteer to go first (Mistake #2). We climb down to the river and soon realize this isn't just some lazy river that is going to be easy sailing. No, its got rapids and is definitely not a slow river. (We later find out it's the 3rd hardest river in the state of Michigan, no big deal) We start out and I quickly come to find I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. I'm trying to paddle but it just isn't working. The water is just going so fast that we have very little control of the canoe. We are hitting and dodging tree branches all over the place. At one point we come across this low lying branch sticking out. The two people in front of me duck down but I'm caught off guard so I take it in the gut. (Mistake #3) Our instructor told us not to hold on to branches but I literally had no other choice we just came at it so fast. The branch pushes me back and I am flat on my back. I still don't know how I didn't fall out of the canoe because it pushed me back so far that by butt came out of the seat. And this tree is so low that I literally think it's going to hit my face so I put my arm over my face to protect it. (Mistake #4) The tree doesn't hit my face but after paddling for a couple seconds my armpit feels a breeze. I'm wearing a long sleeve t-shirt with a vest over it. I look at my sleeve and I have a huge tear that goes from my forearm almost to my shoulder. GREAT. It's 45 degrees, windy, and we're in 58 degree water and with my skills I'm feeling it's likely we're going to tip in. We continue paddling and continue to hit more trees and I'm forced to duck backwards a couple times. I think we spend about a third of the time going backward down the river. Every tree we hit we see someone passing us. The further along we get I start asking if the people passing us are the last ones. Sure enough, we get to our regrouping point and our canoe is last. Yep, that's right, we were the first ones to go and we ended up very last. If that's not a bit of an ego buster than I don't know what is. BUT, on a positive note, by the grace of God we hadn't tipped yet. After the regrouping point we decide to let others out before us. Supposedly this next part was suppose to be easier. I would have to disagree. Just as we thought we had the hang of it more branches and bushes are thrown at us. But now, there's even more turns in the river so there's no time to make any mistakes or you're in a tree. And let me tell you, we made mistakes. One time we get caught in these trees and I'm trying to paddle out but my paddle hits a tree and falls out of my hands and starts floating upstream. Luckily my partner caught it and we avoided a disaster. We keep going, and at this point I'm just so frustrated with myself. I just can't seem to help us at all. Once again we end up in a bunch of branches and then a tree comes out of no where and I have to hit the deck but (Mistake #5) I put my hands up again except this time I forgot to throw the paddle in the canoe so it gets stuck in the branches and gets like, STUCK. It just doesn't move and the current has us moving. I look back and yell to see if anyone can get it, but unlike us, people can actually canoe and so no one around us ends up in the branches or even gets close to them. So here we are, in the middle of the raging river with one paddle. At this point I just want to cry. I have no clue what we are going to do, so pretty much for a while we just let the river take us and brace ourselves whenever we hit trees. Finally another group comes along, and God bless him, one of the guys gives us his paddle and he just paddles his canoe by himself. The rest of the river got easier and somehow we made it without even tipping, That in itself I believe is a miracle. I don't think I've ever been so bad at something. In one sense it was the most embarrassing/frustrating thing I've ever done, but in another I was super lucky that my partners could just laugh with (at) me and we ended up having a pretty good time. It was a memory, that's for sure.
P.S. The canoe guide that goes behind everyone had to stop his canoe on the side of the river and he had to trek through muck and the branches to retrieve my paddle. On the bright side, it's not lost for good,
So yeah, that's my canoeing experience. Luckily the rest of Cedar Bend went a little more smoothly. That story will come later
