Before we could head up to Errol for a little camping and paddling, I had to go riding. Here's a shot of me during my lesson. Warning: Scott and Marc, you may want to close your eyes and scroll down past the picture...It could very well give you scary flashbacks to the days when mom would make you come to watch me show. I know, you shudder at the thought.

After a fun ride, it was time for a not-so-fun ride up to Errol. At one point Adam questioned his sanity at making the 3 hour trek for just one day of paddling. He told me to remind him of this the next time he wanted to plan such a trip. Oh, I will, I will.

It was worth it though, I have to say. As we neared the end of the ride, we spotted a moose and her calf grazing along the side of the road. Do I have a picture of that? Of course not, but it sure was a sweet scene. After sitting and watching them for a few minutes, we continued onto Errol and pulled in around 10:30 PM. We set up our tent and then sat around the campfire for a bit before hitting the sack.

The campsite sits along the banks of the river and boy if the sound of the river rolling past you doesn't put you to a sound sleep, I'm not sure what will! Although I must say that I wasn't thinking the sound of the river was so sweet the next morning as we were about to put on. Ha!

Above is a shot I took of the mighty Errol Rapids! They seemed mighty to me that morning. But as usual, Adam was patient and we started below the rapids in a pool, just paddling along and practicing rolling. After about an hour warming up, we made the hike back up river and put on. I was scared. Adam knew it. And so we just took it slow, did some "eddy hopping" and I even surfed some baby waves. Here's a shot of Adam sufing one.

We ran the rapids a couple of times and I ended up having a lot of fun! This section of river is a great one to do just what I set out to do...Practice my river reading skills and get comfortable in my boat. I'm lucky to have such a great teacher. I know he's always got my back out there.

Good times! I think we may set out to paddle/camp again this weekend...Who's in? Even if you don't want to paddle, the hiking tends to be good wherever we go...Come on!