The River Trip -- A Salvaged Disaster

Oops...I forgot that I had never finished this post...this was another part of our 4th of July Weekend. On Saturday, we decided to rent some tubes and canoes from the college. We put them on a trailer and drove out to a spot not far from us...just outside of Rexburg. The river is REALLY calm and slow here, so safe and easy for kids.

Or so we thought.......

We didn't take our cameras on the water (THANK GOODNESS!) so these are all pre-rafting pictures, but this will help you visualize what happened on our adventure.

We had just gotten started...we were maybe 5 minutes into our float when Rachael and Ismael's canoe started drifting toward some overhanging trees on the shoreline. Before they had time to correct their course...they were tangled up in the branches. In an attempt to free themselves, they pushed away from the branches and capsized their canoe in the process. They completely flipped and Rachael, Ismael, and 8 year old Tessia along with all their shoes, towels, water bottles, and lunch were spilled into the river. After a few moments of panic, they realized they could touch the bottom and stood up and walked over to a nearby sandbar. We had watched it all helplessly from across the river. We all stopped on a beach while Eric and Mason (the canoeing veterans) raced off to recover the floating debris. I think they were able to salvage all of it.
Everyone was a bit shaken...but after drying some things off and having a good laugh, we were all ready to set out again. The rest of the day went smoothly. Everyone had a great time. We stopped often to switch people in and out of canoes and tubes. The water temperature was amazing...not cold like rivers normally are. The outside temperature was also perfect.
We were expecting this to be a 1-2 hour float. However the wind picked up after an hour or so and was against us so at times we were almost not moving. After 3 1/2 hours we were still not to our destination where the car was parked. We were having fun, but we were getting tired and hungry. So we stopped at a beach near some cars and Eric started hiking off to where our car was parked. Someone gave him a ride the rest of the way and we were loaded up and on our way in no time.

It was a very fun...and memorable part of our 4th of July Weekend. These Cameron/Galvez Adventures are becoming legendary. What will we think of next?