Pine River {Day 4}

Saturday was our last day on the river. Again, we were excited and even more prepared. The river was packed! It seemed like everyone in Michigan was on the Pine at the same time. Good thing we had two days of practice! Add people to the list of obstacles! It was fun though. The people who go every year and know the river know the good spots to stop. Sometimes we would stop at a beach were another group was, and it was obvious why they stopped where they did. There's usually a huge rock, sharp turn, or tree in the water where they stop...where most newbies dump or run straight into the trees (or where they dumped themselves). People just hang out on these beaches and holler at the boats going by, trying to get them to mess up. (This is all in good fun though - most people aren't mean.)

With so many people on the river all going to the same place, we got to know certain groups. Matt and I became known for how in sync, in tune, and happy together we were. (This made me SO happy!) Our friends in the canoe, well, they became known as the hat boat. Three grown men in a canoe, two wearing safari hats and one wearing a black fedora, what did they expect?

At one of our stops we were told that everyone stops a particular dune down the river. Wow! They weren't kidding! We came around a bend, saw a huge dune, and then had to maneuver through piles and piles and piles of canoes and kayaks. EVERYONE stopped there. The dune was HUGE and all the first-timers had to climb it. The crowd went wild every time someone did back flips all the way down and cheered to motivate people on the long way up. It was a ROUGH climb! My legs hurt so bad, and it wasn't easy to keep sand out of my drink. There are trees and shade at the top, so a lot of the people just sit and hang out up there for a bit. It was a good time, but I’m SO glad that’s the last time I have to climb that thing! {more to come}

P.S. Sorry for not having pictures – this was a water trip – no camera on board ; )