Uno, dos, tres!

A quick recap of the past three days. Friday was pretty nuts getting all our stuff together, but we managed to get everything packed up and ready to go by the afternoon. We had a great lunch at Zukey Lake Tavern with family and friends before heading out to Hudson Mills. We met up with friends Kaitlin and Eric who paddled with us a few hours to the campsite. That evening we were graced with the presence of a wonderful group of folks from Knox church in Ann Arbor. They were a retreat group of fathers and their kids. They fed us dinner and prayed for us. It was really encouraging to spend time with them and we were both very thankful to have met them.

Day two was an epic day of portages. We paddled twelve hours from Hudson Mills to what we now dub "Drunk Island" in the middle of Ford Lake. Supposedly that's a big party island, but we were ignorant of the fact upon setting up camp. Now Jay and I both have Eminem songs stuck in our head and have been singing them ever since those crazy people were blasting it for who knows how long from their boat. We also weathered our first storm of the trip the second night out. It was quick but powerful, rolling in very quickly just after we got in our hammocks. The funniest thing about the storm was the clueless drunk people who were completely oblivious to the impending tempest. One lady asked "Do you think it'll storm?" as the thunder ripped through the sky right above us. Three minutes later, a wall of wind hit the island. I heard the party-goers screaming and yelling in surprise, and I was freaking out a bit to as I attempted to zip up the outer zipper of my hammock while the wind whipped in the trees above. Ten minutes later, the storm had passed and all was calm, gentle rain pattering upon the rainflies of our hammocks. Eminem even returned to serenade us to sleep.

Day three wasn't as hard as two, but it definitely had the worst portage I have ever encountered. It does not even deserve description other than the fact that it was horrendous and most certainly not "safe" despite the sign at the portage claiming that it was. However, after getting past the dam, it was a beautiful paddle for the rest of the day. We were out of the lakes and once again in a winding section of the river. We met up with our Mom and Ron Sell at Willow Metropark. Ron brought the long-awaited sail rig for our boats, which will hopefully make the Lake Erie section of our trip far quicker. Our lovely mother even took us out to dinner, saving us some time this evening so we didn't need to cook. We paddled a little further down the river in search of someplace to camp, but we eventually chose to poach the Oakwood Metropark. Tomorrow we'll have a short, easy day to the mouth of the river.

~ Shannon