Canoe Trip

I admire Harris for canoeing on the Mississippi River alone. During my senior year in high school, our Physics class went on a canoe trip. I was hesitant to go at first. I didn't know how to swim at the time and was terrified of drowning. Finally, my friends convinced me to go. That week I psychologically prepared myself for the trip. I told myself over and over again that it was just a river and that it wasn't supposed to be deep. The trip was planned toward the end of spring and the hot Texas weather had lowered the depth of the rivers.

When we arrived, the river wasn't deep enough to be worried about. We choose our partners. We were only allowed three people per canoe so I chose two of my friends, who were good swimmers. We put on our lifejackets and waited our turn while other students pushed their canoe out to the river. Finally, it was our turn. The river wasn't deep enough so we had to push our canoe out toward the middle of the river.

No one had gone canoeing before and it took some time before everyone could start rowing. I wish I had my camera out when I first boarded the canoe. The sight I saw was hysterical. Some students had a hard time synchronizing their rowing and ended up going in circles. Others were going the wrong way. Within a few minutes, six canoes had turned over! My crew tried to keep from laughing. We finally gave up when we saw their lunches floating by.

It took about fifteen minutes for everyone to get back in his or her canoe. Some students have gotten used to rowing and began to race with other students. My crew kept a steady pace and concentrated on avoiding shallow areas. We got stuck a couple of times and Jose, one of our crewmembers, pushed us back out into the deeper part of the river. Everyone stopped for a few minutes to have lunch. Those who had plenty to eat shared his or her lunch to the unfortunate students. After eating, we took pictures of each other.

After taking pictures, we boarded our canoe. Our rowing was much better after two hours of rowing. Our teacher warned us that the river will split in two within a mile. We were told to take the left path. The race continued. Some students thought that the right path might be faster and decided to take the route. A few minutes later we heard some shouting from the other side. It was the group who took the "forbidden" path. It seems that they had hit land and couldn't turn back. They asked if we could help them carry their canoe over to the left side of the river. After laughing for a few minutes, we agreed to help them.

After rowing for almost four hours, we began to get tired. We wondered what we could do to make our rowing easier. One of the canoes approached us. We knew the crewmembers and decided to tie our canoe with theirs. Then, one person from each group rowed. It was no use. The plan only slowed us down. We untied our canoe from theirs.

About half an hour later, we saw our teacher. He informed us that we only have about five more minutes to go. We rowed with all our might. We were all hungry and tired. Finally, we arrived to our destination and in one piece.