Well, I just finifhed a 3 hour canoe trip on the Mad River with some friends. I should also mention that this is the first time I’ve been in a boat that required paddling.

Overall, I did very well for my first trip. A coworker of mine is an avid kyaker who like to tell tales of his river exploits in great detail. It see.s that paying attention to those tales has helped out. I picked up steering and control very quickly (I’m not an expert by any stretch of the imagination).

Rick and Eric, thought, ended up spending more time in the river than in the canoe. They managed to trip themselves up on every major and minor obstacle there was. Even getiing stuck 10 minutes into the trip on the first set of “rapids” (term used loosely).

However, what they did in quantity, I made up for in quality. They may have had more wipe-outs, Crystal and mine was more grand.

Up until this point, everything had gone fine. Steerin was fine. Speeding up and braking was fine. predicting currents? Not so fine. I ended up misjudging the strength of a particular current. When Crystal and I realized that we were in trouble, we both tried to push off of the nearest branches, resulting in us capsizing to the opposite side.

After recoveeing from the stark cold water, laughing my butt off. getting control of the canoe, making sure Crystal didn’t drown and securing the oars, I realized that I had lost my glasses.

Now I am off to a 1 hour eyeglass place to try and get a decent replacement pair. Or two.

Overall, a fun trip even though it’s going to cost me.

Posted from my Palm Centro.