Voice of the Rivers 2008

May 20. John Wargo. After having being worn out for yesterday’s 15 mile paddle, we caught up on rest this morning. Sleeping in to about 7:30 and filling up on a breakfast of pancakes was a good start to what we thought was going to be an easy day. Kelsey, Elizabeth, and Clyde set out early to meet up with Kelsey’s dad and get some food supplies. While we waited for them to return we packed up camp and Brian and I went for a swim to the neighbor island. It ended up being farther to the island we guessed and we were glad we wore our life jackets (which is a VOR rule).

When the girls and Clyde returned they informed us of a serious storm coming our way. It would possibly bring very strong winds with dime to nickel size hail. A tornado watch could also be in effect. We only had six miles to paddle today but with the wind already picking up we were concerned it would be difficult to paddle. As we made it around the island the wind hit us dead on. An easy six mile paddle ended up being a bit difficult, making all of us use a lot of strength and energy. When we reached our camp, James had hung up some colorful drybags to show us where we needed to go. He greeted us on the beach and we spent the rest of the day enduring the wind and waited for the storm. After spending the afternoon resting, catching up on journaling and reading, we made dinner and enjoyed a beautiful sunset with no storm at all. I guess we got lucky! We ended the day with a lesson with Ken about the book One Foot in Eden, a novel about a murder in the Jocassee Valley before it was flooded. It was interesting to learn about what was here before and the once loved valley that we paddled during our journey to the Atlantic.