This trip revealed a few other things besides my over confidence: Friends make a trip, and so does gear.
With a dismal forecast of 48 and rainy, no one in the group was doing more then scrunching up their faces at the mention of an overnight kayaking trip. We slept on it, and the dull sky we woke to in the morning was enough for irrational optimism to trump logical skepticism. We were off to the put-in to test our gear and friendship in less than optimal conditions.
Morgan Koontz making moves in the Heart of Franklin. Here she boofs to fight off hypothermia.
We made it to camp without a single drop pouring down. We read a buddhist text over dinner, played liars dice, and slept inside tents and under tarps and the rain began pelting the fabric above our heads.
I don't know if the sensation that I am cheating nature will ever leave me when I stay dry through a rainstorm. When we woke, the sound of raindrops peppered the ground. We got a little wet, but the insides of our drysuits were still dry despite the rain. Cody clayton made a fire while I attempted to stay in bed as long as possible. Cody smiles as he and Eddy undoubtedly question our decision to camp in the rain.
My first trip down a friend of mine said "This place never gets ugly". There are many things that lose their beauty over time: music, art, people, each may only serve to satisfy our asthetic needs for a short period of time, but the beauty of nature is forever, especially this place.
You only need two things to make any trip worth doing: Good friends and good gear.
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