Jodie, Rach and I decided to kick off summer with a fun excursion through the beautiful landscape of Maryland by floating the Gunpowder Falls River. Mind you none of us had floated it before, but it was a hot day and we were looking for an adventure. Earlier this year I discovered a few tubers, while we were running on the NCR Trail North Central Railroad Trail) They were coming out of the water with there tubes and it reminded me of my Guadalupe floating days in Texas.
With that in mind, it seemed to be a great solution to our adventurous appetite. Well, I'm careful, so I asked around and found a friend, Chad, who had canoed it 4 or 5 times and he assured me of the route we were planning and said it was about a 2-3 hour canoe trip.
Saturday, I bring up the idea of floating after church with a little bit of excitement we kinda tabled the idea. However, after church on Sunday, I had already had it in mind to bring it up again. It was supposed to sunny and 85 for the high. We brought the idea back up as an option and I decided it was time to start checking barriers to the adventure, afterall, we didn't even have any innertubes yet.
One phonecall later, we had innertubes and an assured dropoff and pickup location.
All we had to do now was go. Of course, there was a little concern since know one could tell me how long it takes to tube it, but I figured we should try anyway. The only thing I had to remember was that once we traveled about 6 miles via the river we were going to start cris-crossing the NCR trail and at anytime we could get out and walk the NCR to the take-out spot. Well, it didn't work quite as planned.
We gathered the tubes, made it to the take-out spot, dropped the Jeep off there. Took Jodie's car to the put-in spot and then moment of truth hits us. Jodie's key is electronic, meaning, it can't get wet. It must be locked in the car! Once you do that then there's no turning back and mind you it's now 4:30pm. We're about to venture out on and 11 mile river journey with no idea of how long it will take and if we can even make it to the NCR before dark.
Well, it's an adventure right? So we lock the doors and head for the river. We get to the river and see a bunch of people floating, only there floating towards us and get out where we're about to start. We get in the water and it's only warm enough to keep from being ice! I mean cold! Anyways we're good, right? Well kinda. I float for about 3 minutes when I discover some bubbles whistling from my tube. I have a pinhole in my tube and we are still 1/2 mile from the car. At this point I notice a bunch of fishermen ahead and that the water is very shallow, so I stand up in search of deeper water. I find it, but meanwhile begin wondering if shallow water will prevail most of the trip or if this was going to truly be a river float and not a river walk.
Well, I decided the leak was a pinhole and that it should last a while. Yeah, risky. Anyway, we float for awhile and I'm basically just trying to keep track of where we are in my mind, how long we've been floating, where we are, will I see a snake, will we survive this adventure or will I go down in history as the man who took a risky adventure and failed.
I come across a few more fisherman and ask them about a landmark ahead, to which he replied, "oh, Interstate 83, well, that's quite a ways." Great. Just what I wanted to hear. So at this point we I begin to relax a little, simply because we're commited to this, we'd passed the point of return. About 45 minutes later we find the landmark. I'm relieved that we've made some ground, but still looking at an 11 mile float, a roughly 3 mile landmark, wasn't that comforting in light of the 8 miles ahead. Shallow water provided us ample walking opportunity, which was somewhat tiring, however, the watermelon slices and Dr. Pepper that we brought in two small igloo coolers provided a wonderful mile or two of blissful floating and refreshment.
Meanwhile, we make our way down the river and begin a wildlife count somewhere along the way. Twenty-four vultures, 4 full-grown beavers (you know the kind that Rachel screams like a wild badger at. Especially when they're swimming towards her.) 3 deer, and 1 snake (that I didn't tell the girls about) and a couple of fish; a great count I think, for any adventure.
Well, as sun falls so does the water temperature. I begin asking every person I saw, "How much further is it to the NCR?" I figured this was a valid question. It's quite a landmark that everyone living around there should know. Well, they didn't. It didn't matter who asked, they would say, "I don't know where that is." That was not comforting. Finally, we come across another landmark. That was more comforting, but remember, we have maybe an hour to 1.5 hours of light left and my fear was that we were only half way.
We rocked on along, and let me tell you I do mean ROCKed-ON along. There were rocks everywhere and we were constantly hitting them. It didn't make the trip bad or even miserable, just a constant reminder that maybe a tube with bottom might be good next time, if of couse we survive this time.
We finally come to a bridge. I'm up front so I get out and run up to the road to look around and see if I can see the NCR. Well, I find some people walking to their car, and they basically get in there car and drive away as if to ignore me. I get back the bridge and not knowing anything about where we are, I decide that we should just get back in the water and keep floating. I know that the more we float the closer we get and we were losing daylight. Off we go, I find a person about 200 yards from the bridge we just left, fishing, and guess what. NCR? They don't know. I'm not really sure what to do at this point. I mean, I can see a long way down the river and there's nothing ahead. We keep floating. Like for another hour. It's getting dark, had to be 8:30 by now. I'm thinking, "okay. I'm looking for any sign of civilization at this point. Trail. Sign. Road. Power line. Sounds of cars. Anything. I find nothing. Just water and logs.
Ironically, somewhere along the way the water did warm up. I don't know exactly why, but we passed this waterway that was coming into the river and the water was warm. That was encouraging. I still was prefering to see a bridge that said "NCR HERE." The terrain seemed to change at one point. Jodie pointed out that it looked like the NCR and we all agreed we thought we were getting close, but how close was the question.
About 20 minutes later, I spot a clearing on the right. I had seen that before when running on the trail. Then after a much anticipated wait, I see path coming down to the water. I had looked for anything resembling that for quite some time and now it was finally here. I got out and ran up the path and to my relief, the NCR. It had to be 9o'clock. It was late. I figured we were about a mile from the car. We carried the tubes and walked for just a bit and noticed a landmark on the NCR. We had made it! We had gotten just what we wanted, an adventure. All was well and we even had the key for the Jeep still with us. All in all a great adventrous trip, heavy on the adventure.
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