So I got back from my week-long adventure canoeing with the young men in the Alaskan wilderness. It was a great trip that made my back ache. We left Tuesday ahead of schedule. The weather was rainy and we all hoped it would break, but to no avail, it rained...a little.
Tuesday we hit the water and canoed across a short lake to our intended first campsite. Although the site was nice, we were diapppointed that it was so close...so we kept going. We portaged through a water portage--which means if you were light enough you could float. But two adults were too heavy so I got out and pulled us through. The $80 breathable waders I bought was money well spent!
We portaged twice more across two more lakes before we called it a night and set up camp. It rained a lot Tuesday night into the morning, but from then on the weather was great. A little overcast and few showers, but otherwise, sunny and great temperatures--about 65 degrees. All in all, there were 11 portages ranging from 50 yards to 3/4 miles. But we put our camps at all the right spots so the long trips were either at the end or beginning of camp. For example, Thursday night we camped at the beginning of a 1/2 mile portage and took our time to carry our canoes to the other end that night. In the morning we packed up camp and carried our gear to our waiting rides.
The highlight of the trip came while canoeing down the Moose River. We were the lead canoe and came around a sharp right turn and about 20 yards in front of us stood a female moose snacking on river grass. We promptly started to back stroke, as not to hit her, and scared her away. But it was cool to see a moose in the Moose River!
Tuesday we hit the water and canoed across a short lake to our intended first campsite. Although the site was nice, we were diapppointed that it was so close...so we kept going. We portaged through a water portage--which means if you were light enough you could float. But two adults were too heavy so I got out and pulled us through. The $80 breathable waders I bought was money well spent!
We portaged twice more across two more lakes before we called it a night and set up camp. It rained a lot Tuesday night into the morning, but from then on the weather was great. A little overcast and few showers, but otherwise, sunny and great temperatures--about 65 degrees. All in all, there were 11 portages ranging from 50 yards to 3/4 miles. But we put our camps at all the right spots so the long trips were either at the end or beginning of camp. For example, Thursday night we camped at the beginning of a 1/2 mile portage and took our time to carry our canoes to the other end that night. In the morning we packed up camp and carried our gear to our waiting rides.
The highlight of the trip came while canoeing down the Moose River. We were the lead canoe and came around a sharp right turn and about 20 yards in front of us stood a female moose snacking on river grass. We promptly started to back stroke, as not to hit her, and scared her away. But it was cool to see a moose in the Moose River!
1 comment:
I loved catching up on your blog. You have such a cute family!! So you live in Alaska, huh!!! Sounds like so much fun. We are trying to go there or Germany next.
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