Today, we left home at 9:30, stopped at Burger King for breakfast (french toast, tater tots and a drink), then drove to Delphi Indiana to Hodges Canoe Trips for a Purdue Village sponsored trip. Last week we signed up for $5 which covered everything once you are there.
We arrived at the location at 10:30. It is right along the Wabash river just off of Highway 18 near Delphi. Although we were supposed to leave by 11, we didn’t leave until almost 11:15 because the people organizing the event didn’t get there until then. We then got in a small bus with the boats in tow (10 total), and drove 4.5 miles north along the river. We were the first into the water of the group but our canoe was facing the wrong direction so had to try to get it going correctly.
Once we got going, it was fun although the river was moving good and occasionally there was a strong wind in the opposite direction. As this was my first time canoeing, it was certainly an experience to remember. Not more than 20-30 minutes into the trip, someone else’s boat tipped over. It seemed like one of the people didn’t really know how to swim very well too. We were close so we paddled over and tried to help push them and their canoe to the river bank. We also picked up a shoe and one of the seat cushions that they had lost. Eventually we couldn’t keep up and someone in a bigger boat got to them to help out (they weren’t part of the group – just someone else on the river). We saw them get to the short, get the boat emptied and then they got back on the water – with generally better success this time.
Throughout the rest of the trip, we tried to not run into the banks of the river too many times, or get stuck on any rocks that were in the middle of the river just below the surface (these were easy to spot after a while as they’d have large ripples from the water around it). At times, we had to dodge very low hanging branches and one time i had to quickly lean completely backwards so that we didn’t tip over from a large tree (it had large branches that we couldn’t avoid in time). We also had to avoid the waves caused by the fast-moving motorized boats. Most were ok, but a few of the waves were fairly large for a canoe.
We had brought lunch for both of us, but I ended up just drinking some juice packs. However, Justin had a good meal – nigiri and octopus salad. It was amusing as he’d be crouched down in the boat in front of his seat with chopsticks in hand (several pictures are below).
All in all, it was a fun experience. Our boat had a good amount of water in it at the end – probably from us switching the oars from one side to the other. After the fact, we went to Google Maps and found where we had started. I was shocked – the section of river we were on had far more bends in it than I thought at the time. To give an example, it was a 4.5 mile drive to get to our starting point and we traveled about 10.5 miles in the canoe over 3.5 hours. Wow, that’s 3 miles an hour! I’d definitely go again, despite the scary parts.
View 2009 PV Canoe Trip in a larger map
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