Can you Canoe?

I could yesterday, but I think I would cry if I had to try it again today!  I am SORE.

About 12:30, we arrived at Bear Creek Canoe Run in Hackleburg, AL to join the group to canoe.  We met up with Heather and Lou and their family, Kurt and Katy and her mom and dad and their 4 kids and Sarah and Rob and their 2 guys.  We were joining the Fresh Air Family group out of B'ham for the afternoon.  Sarah Lee sponsored half the fees for canoe rentals for the larger group and we wanted to take advantage!

We were in the creek by 1:40, but that hour of waiting was pretty miserable!  It was HOT, the hottest day of the year so far.  The heat index was over 100 and there were hardly any clouds.  

It's so hot, even the trees are melting!  Oh wait, that's just the Woods'!

Once we were on the water, we really had no idea what we were doing.  hahaha!  I thought it might be 5 miles to the take-out, we had one big Powerade each and that was it, no snacks-everyone had a hat and I brought LOADS of sunscreen and some bug spray.  We were wearing swimsuits and shoes and those hideous life jackets.  

Various shots of us canoeing down the length of the creek.

We paddled a good hour downstream and found several of the group pulled off on a bank near a wide stream that fed into the creek. Ever anxious for a leg-stretch, we joined them to play a while!

We paddled another 90 minutes and saw the big bridges that we crossed to get to the canoe run.  We saw kids and adults swimming and asked if this was the take-out, they said it was the half-way point!  We could take out there and be done or keep going downstream to the next take-out.

We pulled over and climbed a waterfall and talked over our options and decided to keep going.  It was 4:30 when we pushed back out into the creek again.

See Chan climbing the falls in this one?
Check out below for zoomed shot.
ACK.

Jake asked me if the creek was a loop, if we were just going to do the same stretch we just did.  I know if he had thought about it, he would have realized why I was laughing so hard!

Katy thought I might want a picture of this rock that was shaped like an ear.  She was right!

We hoofed it down the second half, it had taken 3 hours to get to the half-way point, so we knew we could not be so leisurely with the second half.

Taking  my camera in and out of the waterproof bag and snapping shots became too time consuming!  I only took a few downstream of  the big bridges.


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After dinner, we headed to the Dismals, got into groups and sat to wait for our turn.
I took this long exposure of Ben having a little rest.  It was after 9 at this point.

Group 5 having some flashy fun in the dark!

The Dismalites!  The tiny blue specks, look closely!!

Here is a photo I stacked, it's really 6 shots from the same point, each building on the light from the previous shot.  The light pollution is from other people in the group shining their lights around.  Very annoying!
I hope to go back soon and spend more time down there, our 'tour' was VERY rushed.

We got home a little before midnight, it was a long but fun day!