This weekend I experienced perhaps my favorite night of 2008 – and with my insane work schedule lately…I am super grateful that I had the night/weekend off to partake in the adventure.

Adventure it was…gathering at a friends house, 8 people (myself included…3 girls 5 guys) set out for what we thought would be an hour or two canoe adventure down a section of the patuxent river.  We started at this place affectionately known as “cry baby bridge” (it’s one of the local spooky story locations in our area).  It was about 1am when we finally started down the river.  We had two canoes and lots of time to spare. 

At first the river was quiet, easily managable and serene.  The night sky was clear and a million stars could be seen from the boat.  SEVERAL hours went by and our end point was no where in sight.  My boat, having been tipped over by a strong current and old tree filled with giant spiders, was freezing cold and all of us were tired.  We wondered if we missed our “fork” in the river of if we had somehow wandered astray in our boats.  There were a million downed trees that left us dodging, floating under and climbing over at various points during the night. 

When my friend said “canoe adventure” I had no idea this is what it would entail…none of us did…but that’s what made it beautiful. 

Soon enough the light began to emerge and our fearless leaders (unofficial, but since it was their idea…I called them our leaders…at least in my mind) began to acknowledge that the canoe trip had taken a lot longer than expected.  We continued on…and eventually found the bridge that defined our end point…arrival time approximately 7am (yeah, we started at 1am…you do the math!). 

We arrived back at the house at 8am showered and began cooking pancakes, eggs and bacon.  We had a wonderful breakfast…and then as if we hadn’t slept in days…we all crashed…hard. 

I can’t say there was anything super spiritual about the trip.  There was no awe inspiring moment.  It was just a plain fun, adventure (and spider) filled night on the water.  Hanging out with friends, dodging the largest spiders known to man (at least in my mind they were), riding the waves, climbing trees and chanting “thrust” over and over again.  It was, hands down, the best night of my summer. 

I would have pictures to post, but our camera now lives at the bottom of the patuxent river.  Perhaps some of the best memories are those that are shared by great friends…and are also the ones that you don’t need a picture to remember it by.  (although, I would have loved a picture of me and the other two girls, walking to out from under the bridge, looking for our car, soaking wet, covered in mud with a headlight flashlight on my head…that would have been priceless!)