Hello, just wanted to tell you a little story/update…I went canoeing over the 4th which ended up at a lake tubing behind a speed boat with sunburns and bruises… it was fun.

4 of us decided to go on a little canoe/float trip down the Brazos river outside of Fort Worth (90miles away). This part of the river started at Possum Kingdom Lake and ended out in the middle of nowhere. Byron and I went in a canoe, Lisa in a sea kayak and Scott in a whitewater kayak.

This trip started the day I returned from working with some graduate students on a deer fawn project where my sleeping schedule was awake at 1:30am and worked until 2pm then went to bed by 4-5pm. It was fun but hard. Switching sleeping patterns for 10 days and then switching back was interesting. Anyways we found
fawns (cuties) and tracked deer (stupid) and watched a lot of movies. Back to the canoe trip…

Nothing exciting really happened. Saw lots of turtles (map, red-eared sliders, mud, stink pots etc.) saw lots of fish and great blue herons, game wardens, and sun…lots of sun. There was no shade over this river. We made a silly mistake but not really a
mistake. We had originally intended on doing the 20 miles in 3 days. We put in Friday night around 6pm and pulled out to make camp at 8. I brought my GPS
(Im a geek) so I knew how far we went (3.3 miles). We were going to float all day Saturday and take out around 5pm or so and then do the rest Sunday….well
plans changed and we decided to push on doing the remaining 17 miles in one day. Reminds me of another trip I took in Alaska with harmony, gage, and joe…..but that’s another story. Anyways, this meant a long day where everyone was cranky and tired by the end. The decision to push on was due to Scotts parents own a cabin on Possum Kingdom lake where they have jet skies and boats and wake boards and fireworks and lots of food and drink. We all wanted to just swim and some of us really didn’t enjoy the kayaking (Scott). Lisa is from upstate New York and even though she is in the wildlife field she had NO clue how to camp, Scott is
from Texas and was a 21 year old going on 16. Byron and I were basically he “experienced” ones and so we did all the cooking and making sure the equipment was pulled out of the river and stored properly etc etc. I didn’t mind so much the first night but I think after a long day of canoeing I would not have been pleasant the second. They tried to help but were more of a hindrance.
I was really happy with the food situation we cooked chicken over a fire, just wrapped it in foil and put some BBQ sauce in with it to stay moist and it came
out juicy. We boiled some corn (would have taken too long to cook on fire) and then had some Mac&Cheese. Quite the banquet I feel.

The cabin at the lake was great. lots of food and good people. We went tubing which I found to be very difficult to get on and then we went and watched fire
works over the lake and saw lots of drunk rich people with their boats and pasties or painted on bathing suits. LOTS of drunk people. Went diving off a 15′ platform and saw some cliff jumpers and what not. You would never have thought you were in Texas except all of the southern accents, but my ear is used to thatnoise by now. Anyways all and all had a good time. Wish I could send a pic or two but just got back so don’t have them developed.

What I learned from this trip:

Never canoe with a New Yorker
Never take a white water kayak on a SLOW flowing river
You can use an oar to cut down grass
I should get a Sun hat, they are cool even if you look like a dork…they protect you from the crewl sun
Even deli turkey when soaked in water loses flavor and ends up tasting bad even though it has no flavor.
Paisties are never a good thing around water
Some people should wear underwear even on the water

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