Canooing at Turkey Run
Yesterday, my roommate, her church small group, and I went to Turkey Run in Indiana for a day of hiking and canooing! It was.. 'wicked fun!' hehehe (that's a little inside joke).
We met at the Vinyard at 8 in the morning and headed off for Indiana. Tracey, Nancy, Alene, and I all piled into Andrew's car, while Brad and Caty drove Norman, Katie, and .. i think her name was Danielle. The drive was fun, we were all awake and talking. But on the way we drove by an accident and saw a body wrapped up. We said a little prayer for the family of the person to be comforted. It was really sad and made you realize how precious and important life is.
We got to Turkey Run a little after 9:30. Our first plan of attack was to hike. We took the more 'rugged' of trails, trail #3. I was really unprepared for what our hiking excursion would be. It was so incredibly beautiful along the trail and I was awestruck. We walked for the most part through this very trench cut out of rocks. The rocks climbed high over us and were covered with moss. It was so green and so awesome. Along the path was a small stream that trickled down as we hiked up it. It appeared as though years and years ago the area that we were hiking through might have been an actual river bed. It was cool while we walked through the rocks. Some of it was a little more difficult because the rocks were wet and slippery, but it was well worth it.
But the trail was not only being in the rockbed. We climbed out of the trench and walked through some deeply wooded areas. It was much more warm and humid above the rockbed. It wound back around and we eventually began walked alongside the little river where people were canooing and kayaking down. Along the trail we saw a turtle, a baby snake, a mouse, and turkey vultures. The area was just so pretty. I definately want to go back. I hadn't hiked in anything like that in such a long time.
After hiking, we took a break and had lunch. It was nice to relax, drink water, and eat. My dad always drinks Propel and I never understood why. My roommate and I had packed her cooler and she had brought some, so I tried it. It was actually pretty tasty. Yeah.. random.
After lunch we drove down to the canooing center and rented 5 canoos. It was actually pretty inexpensive, only about $14 for two people to take a canoo. We got to the launch site and we all paired off. Tracey and her friend Alene took a canoo, Brad and Norman were together, Danielle and Katie too, Cady and Nancy were partnered, and I road with Andrew. At first it took us a little while to figure out to paddle, turn, and get around. A couple people shot off and we caught up with them only to realize that others were being left behind. So in our group of canoos we began to float down the mini-river.
The river was small and shallow in certain places. Frequently our canoos would get stuck and we'd have to jump out to free ourselves. Tracey and Alene kept getting stuck and we had to stop a couple times to wait for them to catch up. We didn't want to leave them behind. It was fun. We'd all float by each other and splash each other with our paddles. We didn't want to get too wet, just a nice friendly hello.
We all floated down the river looking around at the beauty of the area. It was such a beautiful day. I enjoyed letting my hands drag atop the surface of the water and caress the cool water. There was a nice breeze, the sun was out and shining strong, and there were a few clouds. Trees stood tall alond the bank of the river. I remember looking into the wood and wondering what it must have been like to be an indian and canooing down this very same river. What it must have been like, what did they feel, what did they think? Did they have to worry about enemies sneaking out and ambushing them? Did they lazy float down, fish, and swim for pleasure? I felt at such peace and not a stranger to the world. I felt like i belonged and I felt whole.
About half way into our expedition, the wind changed and blew down the river. It was colder and stronger. We all looked up and dark clouds had quickly formed above us. We looked at one another unasuradly wondering what to do. We continued to paddle... then *BOOM*, thunder crackled and rolled through the sky above us. Andrew freaked out and Brad teased him that perhaps a tornado was coming. It was funny at how nervous he got. But we just kept paddling and floating down. Soon.. the sun had disappeared behind the thickening clouds. We hoped it would not rain... but the next thing we heard was a rustling and crashing through the trees. We all moaned as we knew what was quickly approaching. Across the river in front of us we saw it explode out from the woods and sweep across the surface of the water. A wall of water advanced on us. Hurridly we began to paddle down the river hoping our docking point would approach quickly. But as the minutes went by, the rain poured down harder and harder on us. Puddles lay at our feet as water began to quickly fill our canoos. Andrew and I sped off ahead with Brad and Norman tailing us. But we lost sight of the others. I myself could not see in front of me the rain was so thick. We cut through an eerie mist that rose up around us. A few times we got stuck on rocks and sand bars and since we were already we wet, we jumped out to push our canoo free. Our canoo even got stuck on an underwater log but Brad and Norman crashed into us, knocking us free.
Brad and Norman found a bridge and we stopped to wait for the others. We had hoped the bridge was our exit, but we still had further to go. The bridge sheltered us from the torrents of waterdroplets, but it was too late. We were already soaked through and through. Once more we set off in search for the end of the trail. We still had a while till we reached 'our' bridge, and the rain began to ease up. But just as we arrived at our destination, the clouds parted and the sun burst forth from its mashed potato captivity.
The entire canoo ride took about 2 hours or so. It probably would have been longer had we not been paddling fiercly to escape the storm. After having finished, we all dried off and changed. We all clammered to talk about our experience and regale on how much we enjoyed the trip. The afternoon was wafting away so we all piled in again and made our way back to Urbana-Champaign. Most of us slept on the way back after having such an exciting day. As a treat, we stopped at St. Joe's and got Ice Cream at the Dairy Queen.
It was a fun trip and I'm glad I went. It was a good experience and I can't wait to go back again.
