adventures in canoeing

Mike and I went canoeing with a friend of ours, her husband and a bunch of their friends on Sunday - it was her birthday last week. The day started out very dreary and with a lot of rain, but we decided to go ahead anyway -and by the time the fourteen of us (7 canoes) were starting to bob down the Fox river 12 miles from our destination, the sun was shining. Very peaceful and serene. The river is a class one, which is perfect for novice canoers and most times we could touch the bottom with our paddles...

We stopped for lunch after 5 miles where we ran into an employee of Mike's who was also canoing with a bunch of people. What are the odds?! We were a good 60 minutes south of Naperville!!

We started to head downstream again for the last 7 miles... after a while we noticed that a big weather system was in the south - we weren't too sure if it was coming our way or if it was just passing to the south of us... Very quickly it was upon us and we knew we were going to have to seek shelter. My idea of fun is NOT sitting in a metal canoe on water with lightening all around!

As the wind picked up and the rain started to fall we all headed for a small cave and in our haste, Mike and I rammed into a rock on the far side of the river (next to some small sandstone cliffs near the cave) and capsized. It was frightening as we'd gotten caught in a current and couldn't turn the canoe... luckily we could stand but the current was incredibly strong and there was a tree root and lots of big rocks that we had to fight our way over. The canoe was completely filled with water and our belongings were beginning to bob away. We lost a paddle too but it was picked up by one of the other canoes.

Trying to hold onto a waterlogged canoe in a strong current is crazy, and Mike was carrying our watercooler which had all our wallets and keys in it (also at least 3 inches of water from the river) and was super heavy after being waterlogged... I don't know how he held onto it! My camera, which I had luckily put back into its case, had also fallen in the river but I had managed to grab onto it when I surfaced.

After trying to walk down to the cave and ending chest deep in water, we ended up managing to push the canoe towards the island in the middle of the river. Thankfully the river became shallower in the middle so we were able to stand and rotate the canoe to empty it of water. We made it to the island where we recovered. I was completely soaked and shaking like crazy... and then headed over to the cave as the rain pelted down and lightening and thunder raged around us. We sat the storm out in a tiny little cave which held six of our canoes very nicely...

My legs & knees are scraped up and are also suffering from sunburn (yes, I forgot to put sunscreen on my legs), and my back and arms are feeling that fantastic ache of hard-worked muscles. I've been gimpy all day. I can't help feeling as though Mike and I had a narrow escape where the outcome could have been a lot worse.

We ended the day on a ridiculously sunny and hot note after continuing for another mile or so downriver to where our cars waited for us. The evening was an opportunity to join our friend to celebrate her birthday with style at Payton's Roundhouse in Aurora and get to meet some more people.

A fun day, all in all. I just might not have full range of motion for a while.