Day 62: Jerusalem to Hipango Campsite (1297-1349)

Monday, January 30

I slept so well last night. The pillows and the bed were so nice. I ate a freeze dried breakfast Gail had given me and looked around the convent one last time before packing up. A nice lady staying at the convent with her daughters offered to drive our barrels down to the road to the river. It was so nice not to carry them down the road and driveway!

We made another chain to pass our barrels down to the canoes. They were all still there. Hooray! We had heard there wouldn't be much current today so we started the morning paddling for awhile. We tried to make a paddling flotilla with Julia and Puff Puff (where we tie our canoes together and paddle), and as canoes caught up to us the flotilla became bigger and bigger. Eventually we came to some rapids that looked pretty dicey to Marjolein and me so we broke away.

In the morning as we were loading barrels in the boat I realized Marjolein's barrel was cracked pretty bad. All her stuff wasn't in dry bags, so we didn't want to flip. Everyone else in the group took the rapid joined together. At one point it seems like you're going to go over a waterfall (once you're over you realize it was only three quarters of a foot high, but it seems much larger as you approach it). Our friends perfectly steered the floatilla and fit between rocks on both sides and made it over the "falls." A loud cheer erupted, but it was a good thing Marjolein and I got out because we were on the end and would have been run right into the rock on the edge.

Soon after Marjolein and I pulled over to a shoal to swap out big barrels and eat snacks. My stuff is all in dry bags so I didn't mind taking the cracked barrel for the last day and a half.

We all stopped at Downes hut for a pee break. I'm glad we didn't stay there because it would have been a long way to carry our barrels up.

We paddled and flotilla-ed the rest of the way to Hipango Campsite. Erinn, Trevor, Vicky and Remi were already there.

Marjolein and I got our paddling rhythm down really well and we pulled into the dock for the campsite with Dave, Kristen, Creya and Sara. Dave threw their barrels up to Kristen, and the rest of us made a mini chain to get our stuff onto the dock. We tied our boats up and began carrying our barrels up to the campsite. As we were nearly finished carrying everything the rest of our group arrived.

After I had all my barrels at the campsite, I walked down to see if anyone else needed help. Everything was taken, but Julia was down there and asked if I had my bottle of whiskey. It was still in the buoyancy compartment and I hadn't gotten it out because it still smelled like a dead animal every time I opened it. She jumped off the dock and into the water to retrieve it. She looked in both sides and couldn't find it, but I knew it was in there and she didn't want to climb up to the dock empty handed. She checked the back one more time and found it, triumphantly raising it above her head. Once she got back on the dock we walked up the campsite. It was so nice of her too get it!

Only our group was there so we could be as loud as we wanted and could stay up late. The ocean tides begin impacting the river tomorrow so we can't really leave before 11 am - so late for us! I made a double dinner and we all finished off most of what was left of our drinks and food.

As we ate and drank we participated in an activity called roses, buds and thorns. Each person shared their low and high for the day and what they wanted to work on. It was sad because it was our last night, but we had fun talking, playing a trivia game and taking pictures of stars. Just after midnight I went to bed. It was way past my normal hiking bedtime.