One of Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop prompts for this week “Tell us about your trip” inspired me to share some found memories from our canoe trip on the Peace River last April.
My friend, Chrissy, had always talked about how much she and her family loved canoeing the Peace River and invited us along for the fun. Unfortunately, we arrived late to the outpost and missed our friends, so we had to take a later bus to the launch location. We were left to explore the river without our friends and our shovels and pails.
Peace River is best known for its abundance of fossils and shark teeth deposited in the river bed. The canoe outpost provides shovels and pails, but in our rush to get to the river, we forgot to grab our archeological dig gear. My girls didn’t seem to mind using their hands to search for treasure.
Along the river, the roots of cypress trees construct a natural wall and their huge canopies offer plenty of shade.
There are several shallow spots to take a quick break from paddling and cool off in the water. The girls loved swimming and wading through the water searching for sharks’ teeth.
We enjoyed taking our time to explore each new spot, but it seemed we weren’t the only ones who liked roaming the river banks.
We assumed our friends were far ahead of us, but Allana and Allan decided to let them know we were here.
As we drew closer to the end of our trip, we passed under an old railroad bridge being used as a diving platform by some crazy boaters brave souls.
Although we enjoyed every minute of our two hour expedition, the girls were glad to finally arrive back at the outpost and on dry land.
In the end, we found quite a few sharks’ teeth, but ironically Allana lost one of her own.
Like Chrissy, we fell in love with Peace River that day and we are looking forward to warmer days to paddle down the river once again this spring…
…with my bump and minus the beer, of course.
