paddling

this blog is in response to B's blog on the romance of paddling.

this past weekend, a bunch of couples from church went for a white water canoe camping trip on the Petawawa. now, we were on the lower pet, not the upper. and it's a lovely river. i've been there 12 times now. (it's getting a tad predictable) and i have to tell you, paddling is not romantic to me.

i can understand how B thinks that watching the lovely trees go by, hearing the loons, watching the sunshine sprinkle little diamonds all over the river and your paddle, is fun. romantic. i think it's boring.

i don't like loons. i think they are idiots. i read something once where the writer was complaining about loons. they are actually rather stupid animals. they do stupid things. they are not a smart bird. and yet, people have put loons as a Canadian treat. i think their howling is irritating. it kills me to see people putting out their freshly painted adirondack chairs and just listen to the loons and then spend a roll of film trying to catch it. "oh look, you can see his foot. and if you look very close you can make out the babies". blah.
and then there's the trees. yes i like trees. i like trees a lot. they are one of my favourite things. however, there are zillions of trees on this river. most of them are ugly. sparse, uncared for, wild things that are being eaten by beavers, and were damaged from a severe storm so many years ago. i don't care about the trees. if you've seen one white pine you've seen a zillion.
and the water. yah, ok, i can appreciate the calmness of water. the stillness of the lake. when it's as clear as glass. but then it gets boring. i can appreciate the water if i'm paddling and i can see the bottom.
so while we're doing our trip, we start off with an hour flat paddle and then another and then we hit the rapids!!!
now the rapids, i can enjoy. is there a chance of dying? of course. is that the excitement of it? no. it's the unpredictability of it. many times have the rockstar hubby and i fallen out of our canoe when we smashed a rock we didn't see. we even lost all of our gear down the river when we tipped over. i thought it was hilarious. my only thoughts were, how are we going to paddle 25km in 4 hours, and would we float past any of it? (there happened to be two men at the end and they snagged our gear for us)
i like unpredictability. but then again i don't. i plan my day fully. i don't like change. i like routine. it makes sense to me.
but the thrill of seeing the churning water, the splashing of waves and getting drenched when it hits us. bailing out the insane amount of water that came in as you battle the rapids. it's fun. it gets my heart racing. but then again, so does climbing a tall ladder to hang up Christmas lights.

so keep your boring flat water. i think the fast crazy stuff is romantic. i love my heart pounding with a bit of fear. i think that my rockstar hubby getting us safely through another rapid is romantic. almost DYING in the waves and rocks is romantic.
but so is walking holding hands and drinking lattes...