Crash and Splash
By: Trip Advisor
In the raft it was my mom, aunt, sister, grandma, and me. We got our paddles, life preservers, raft, and loaded up in a van to drive to the launch point. The drive took about 5 minutes, and as we got closer excitement only grew. Once we were situated in the raft, we pushed off and began paddling. As we began to get into a rhythm of paddling, the current picked up pulling our inflatable raft faster and faster. We had to start ducking because of low-hanging branches and were turned around backwards a few times.When we finally got the raft to face the right direction again, a large brown mound of sticks and mud was quickly approaching- a beaver den. Immediately I began freaking out. What if there were beavers in there? What if the raft popped?
While my nine year old self was freaking out, my aunt and mom managed to keep the raft from colliding with the beaver den. A wave of relief washed over my entire body - we had gotten through it all...but that was actually only the beginning. Even though the raft was secured, apparently the tube of sunscreen was not. Within minutes, the new bottle of sunscreen fell out of the raft and began floating in the opposite direction. Since my mom bought the sunscreen she wanted to turn back and go get it. My aunt on the other hand thought it was fine and we would just buy another one later...that argument didn't hold up long. In seconds we were turned around and paddling the wrong direction to go get the sunscreen, that is until we weren't alone in the river.
By: Youtube
Along the left side of the raft, we could see something swimming in the water. As we got closer, we were able to make out a shape and a shell- it was a snapping turtle. Immediately we turned back around forgetting about the sunscreen, just worried the turtle would pop the raft, sending us all into the river. My heart began pounding, I had heard stories of people losing fingers to snapping turtles, I didn't want to lose my fingers. Thankfully the turtle swam by without paying much attention to our raft, thank goodness.
After the beaver den, sunscreen, and snapping turtle, I thought it had to be a smooth ride from there right? Apparently not. Within about another 10 minutes a low hanging branch knocked my aunt's baseball hat into the river. Before any of us could react she lunged for her hat nearly flipping the raft and going into the river herself. My mom and grandma tried to talk some sense into my aunt, after all it was only a hat. She then explained that this was her replacement hat because the first one had been eaten by her best friend's dog and it took six months to find this one, so she wasn't going to lose another. So of course, we went to save the hat, and luckily were successful in that mission.
By: Pinterest
Before we knew it, we had made it to the mouth of the river, where it dumps out into the lake. We were so close to completing our rafting journey...that is until my sister lost her paddle in the lake. At this point my mom was over this trip and jumped out of the raft into the lake swimming for the paddle because she was not paying $25 for a replacement. When she got back into the raft, we paddle slowly making sure nothing else went wrong until we reached the sandy shore.
From this entire experience I learned the importance of surrounding yourself with people who care. I definitely would not have had the experience I did with anyone else than my family. We are a close family who would do anything for each other, even paddle out of our way to save a hat. Being on the lake for my entire life has taught me so many lessons in unconventional ways and has helped me grow as a person and give me some pretty funny stories to tell as well.
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