Blog Entry 8 - Canoe Trip

Canoe (Source: Internet, link on image)

Before that day, I had been in a canoe only once in my life. I had been in boats before, but they had almost always been powered by an engine of some sort (outboard or inboard). The idea of being in a boat powered by nothing at all (with the exception of the rowers, of course) still seemed strange to me. However, considering that it seemed like half the class had never been in a canoe before at all, I actually felt pretty good. I ended up pairing with Brittaney that day. I figured that as long as we could actually get into the canoe, without flipping it over, we would be OK. And, sure enough once we were in and adjusted to using the canoe, the experience quickly became very enjoyable. The water was pretty calm and maneuvering the craft proved to be fairly simple. I was sitting in the back of the vessel, so I was in largely in charge of steering it. The only real difficulty we had was trying to avoid the oyster beds and areas that were too shallow to go across. Most of the time we found it nearly impossible to tell whether or not we were in an area that was too shallow - until it was too late and we found ourselves stuck. The difficulty continued to rise the longer we were out there, as the tide was beginning to go out. Eventually, though, we got the hang of it and found ourselves having a good time. We even got to see some wildlife, including Little Blue Herons and a Horseshoe Crab the Professor had found. This was probably my favorite of the field trips, especially since we got to go out and explore the area in a manner much more relaxing than walking. In hindsight, I regret not trying out the kayak, as it looked like it could have been fun to use. Unfortunately, this was the one field trip where I did not bring my camera, as I was afraid of potentially getting it wet in case we had flipped.

Horseshoe Crab (Source: Internet, link on image)