Voice of the Rivers 2008

May 28. John Wargo. During the early morning routine of eating breakfast and packing up camp I enjoyed watching the sun rise while listening to the birds. John Greene was student leader and Jenna was our navigator for the day. We had a good 23 mile paddle and it was a hot one. We all made sure that everyone drank water throughout the day. Lunch was at a really cool spot called Shell Bluff. It was a large cliff full of shell fossils.
During lunch we had a discussion with Ken about the reading River Life Through U.S. Broadly Degraded. We talked about mankind’s interaction with the river and how we have changed it. It was a good discussion. The afternoon paddle seemed to go slow, but it usually does when we get down to the last few miles of the day. We had two ten minute reflection floats where we let the river take us down and we observed the natural beauty of the river and its surrounds. A few of us, me included, had some friendly water fights which helped the afternoon move along and kept us cool. When we finished our last miles and pulled our boats to shore, Ken and Clyde went to go talk to someone up in what looked like someone’s back yard. When they came back they had an unexpected surprise for the group. It had been arranged for us to stay in a lodge and sleep in beds, and we were also invited for dinner by Dave Hargrove who had lived in the area for a long time. He has been a member of the Savannah River Keepers which we learned about earlier in the week. Dave had an excellent dinner prepared for us of chicken and shrimp stir fry. This had been one of the best meals of the trip without argument. I continued to be surprised by how friendly everyone is that we meet and how they go out of their way for us. After eating with Dave and listening to his stories about the area we got settled in and had a group discussion about the day. When we thought the day was about to be done we met another visitor Tonya Bonitatibus from the Savannah River Keepers. She told us all about what the Savannah River Keepers do and more about the river’s past, present, and future. Tanya and the organization have a great passion for protecting the river that we’ve been a part of during our trip. Everyday we learn more and more about it. We definitely got spoiled today and gained a lot of information about the Savannah River.