August 2008
On a beautiful late summer morning, Mark and I awake late and lazily get out of bed. We had been planning to get on the road early early in the morning, but that wasn’t going to happen after a late night out with friends. We start packing up the cooler, a few bags, and grab all the food and adult beverages we can find. Within two hours of getting up we had put our stuff together and thrown the canoe on top of my Honda Element. Securely tied down, we were off!
An hour drive north-north-west through the beautiful lake and mountain views of western Maine and we arrived at our first destination. We dropped Mark’s car there and piled into mine, heading off to destination number two. Once there we were amazed at how empty the parking lot was and even the loading/unloading area. Only one other group was there, sitting around waiting for their pick-up. They were sitting and joking and harassing eachother, lethargic after an obviously good trip.
We unloaded the Element and brought everything down to the water’s edge. We borrowed the canoe from a freind because it’s aluminum and light. Ours is heavey and pretty beat up so it’s very slow. After all the hauling, Mark was overheated so he dove right in. My temperature was just right and I didn’t need a dip in the chilly water. Not yet, anyway.
So we shove off, me in the bow, Mark in the stern. I’m not strong enough to be the rudder, and besides, he’s good at it. We paddle a handful of strokes to get into the current of the river. We take a break. The sun is beating down and the breeze is gentle. Time for a drink. I have the cooler within arms reach and I pass a cold one back to Mark. We crack the cans and do an air “cheers”.
