For the first day of our river fellows week of exploring, we set out on a two day kayaking trip. In the morning we started off with some ice breakers as well as a few exercises to gauge where we were in terms of knowledge about the river. We had a brief presentation on what a watershed is and how it affects our river system , and then we loaded our things onto the bus for our adventure. After a short bus ride to the put-in, we walked around the parking lot and learned about some organizations that help keep the river clean. One organization we learned about was Green Steps, which helps encourage citizens to keep trash out of the river and nature by offering incentives for cleaning, such as Amazon dollars ( one amazon dollar per bag of trash collected). Finally, after a short lunch we got in the river and started our trip.
We paddled for a while until we found a rope swing on the shore that some of us had fun swinging on. Then we continued on for a few miles and reached the house.
When we got inside many of us showered off from our long hot day on the river, and we ate a wonderful meal that was prepared for us by our friends from outdoor Chattanooga as well as some chopping by us.
We then talked about many river related issues during dinner and we had some chocolate chip cookies for dessert. We were all very tired so we ended the day with a reflection led by Mrs. Couch and then we all hung out for a while before going to bed. We all had a great time , and I want to thank all of the people who made this possible like Mrs. Couch ,Mrs. Terri and Ms. Aerial. Also, we got to see a bald eagle within the first few minutes of paddling which was a really awesome experience considering they were very endangered at one time.
