Getting ready to kayak!

Its the last day and we're having our safety and logistics talk. The girls are excited but nervous for this last day...

You mean we get to sleep in real beds tonight!?

Well...Mother Nature sure threw a curve ball at us yesterday and today! I decided to take the group off the river this morning and switch the last two day's schedules around. I didn't want the girls to have to spend another night in cold wet clothes and gear. Yesterday's rain really soaked us. One day and morning in the rain was enough. It cleared up yesterday after we got to the campsite...but the chore of setting it up was amazing. More to come on that later.

We are back at PEEC today and tonight cleaning gear and washing ourselves in real showers. We will sleep in real beds and awake refreshed and ready for one more day on the river tomorrow kayaking. The weather is supposed to be clear and sunny...Yea! So we should have a great last day. After that we come back and pack up the gear that had a chance to dry then the girls leave at 5pm homebound for Philly!

I will miss them a lot :(

Jessica and I go to Philly to spend an afternoon with them next Wednesday, then Jasmir, Dominique and Marissa come back in August to intern at PEEC so I will get to see at least the three of them one last time.

I hope they all keep in touch one way or another...

Here we go!

Here's the first boat out of the shute...we were a close second!

Sleeping Bag Challenges

Its always harder to put the bags back into the pack than taking them out!

Heading for the river!

Here we are just about to embark on day two on the water in canoes!

A few of the girls packing their bags...

Some girls opted to pack their bags in their tents...

Home for last night

Here we see our little tent village...

Cloudy?

We're hoping that the clouds don't rain on us, because rain is tough to deal with, but cloud cover is nice because it makes the day cooler!

Morning has Broken

This is the view that awaited everyone upon exiting their tents this morning

Day Two

It rained all night. But that's not a bad thing. It cooled the night off and it forced us all into our tents for some much needed rest. Hopefully it will add some more water to the river and help it to flow faster. We had a BBQ for dinner and Ruth Jones, the owner of Kittatinny Canoes came to our camp for stories about the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area and her long life of 70 plus years on the river. The rain held just long enough for us to clean up dinner and make a mad dash into our tents that were thankfully already set up. The girls stayed up late into the night chatting as the river slid lazily by and the rain tapped on the tops of our tents. 7:45 am. Time to wake the girls for breakfast, packing and prep for today's trip. We have to pack everything for tonight's camp. We won't have the luxury of having a van with gear and food waiting for us at camp tonight. Its off to breakfast now.

Last of the lunch fun

Maranda, Marissa and Priya enjoying the water before shoving off for the last push of the day.

Exploring the River

Marissa was taking a look at some fish that were in a slow part of the river where we had lunch.

Lunch

We took out about 4 miles down for lunch. We were really hungry. With the river being so low it's a lot harder to paddle...we are all building up our muscles!

In the Princess Seat...

Henry gets to relax while we all do the work...

A mile or so into the first day.

The Delaware River is pretty low right now so 10 miles is tough. Here are a few of us early on.

Getting necessary safety info...

Here we are at Pond Eddy getting ready to get into the rafts!

On the Van Ride to the River!

We took a van to the campsite/River guide where we will end up after our first day on the river...all white water today baby!!!!

Ready to Go!

The Water Warriors are packed and ready for their last breakfast at PEEC till thursday morning! Delaware River...here we come!

Henry is Impatient!

Well...Henry is ready to go! Come on girls...hurry up!

Introducing Henry the Dragon!

Our group are the Water Warriors and our Mascot is Henry the Dragon seen above caught in the act of being a bad banker during a break in the monopoly game. The girls were at dinner and Henry seems to have fallen while making a break for it! Oh well...he's too cute to stay mad at for long :)

If there's a lesson to be learned it's...Don't trust dragons with the bank!

The Test Worked!!!!!

I just sent this pic and message from my phone. I am so glad this is working now! This is a picture of the gear all packed and ready to be packed into the van tomorrow morning.

Ok River...Here we come!

Heidi's Notes #2

It's 9pm the night before we are to shove off. The girls are all packed, the food is all prepped and all the gear is ready to pack into the van promptly at 8:30 am. I should be home enjoying my last night in my house for 4 days...but I am still in my office tying up loose ends and trying to get the mobile aspect of this blog working. I have tried several times to get the text-to-blog connection working but it just doesn't seem to want to work. I'm about to try to set it up as an email-to-blog connection and walk outside my office to send a test post. I hope it works...