The Epicness of Abby Squared: Land Between the Lakes

Well hello there! I know you have all been waiting to hear about my (Abby J) trip to Kentucky. For those of you who did not read about it earlier. I signed up to go on a camping, kayaking, and hiking trip in Kentucky over Thanksgiving break. It was on a whim and I knew nobody that was going.

Anyhow... I am alive still! So that's good news. :) Here is the full trip in detail....

First off I would like to explain to you all about the group that went. There were 14 people total. We had four leaders and 10 participants. It was quite the group let me tell you. We had 2 guys from Singapore, 1 girl from Malaysia, 1 girl from Korea, 1 guy from Australia, 1 older lady who was quite the adventurer, 2 girls that were fashion majors, 1 girl who was a graphic design major, and me! :) What a group!

We left Ames in a 15 passenger van and a truck that pulled all the kayaks and canoes. We left at about 6pm and the destination for the night was St. Louis where we would be staying at a luxurious Motel 6! The ride was mostly filled with sleeping and listening to my iPod. The truck hit a deer along the way so that was pretty exciting! Everyone was fine except the deer. We made it to St. Louis at about 1am. We all packed into the rooms and crashed because we had to wake up at 6 am the next morning to get on the road and drive another 4 hours to our destination. Which was Kentucky Lake.

Once we got to the Lake at about noon we unpacked all of our gear onto the beach of rocks and then we started packing our kayaks. This was quite the learning experience for me let me tell ya... I over packed surprise surprise! So I had to leave some clothes behind in the van. The plan for the week was that we would kayak for 3 days and camp along the way then hike the last day. So once I figured out how to pack up my kayak we ate lunch which was deli sandwiches. During that time two of the leaders drove the vehicles up to the ending point for the last day then drove back down to where we were in the other car. Once we had everyone ready to go it was time for my first kayaking experience! weeeeee!

Once we got on the water, which was also a process for the whole group, things were a bit shaky. The sun was shining but it was really windy and there were some pretty sweet waves... for a lake. However, those waves were not so sweet when our graphic design girl flipped her kayak :( burrrrr! The water was realllllly cold. So they tried to pull her into the canoe to get her to shore but then the canoe flipped over too!! So there went all of our food for the week..... jk it was in a dry box. So the people in the water had to swim to shore and drag the dry boxes and canoe to shore. So that was the end of kayaking for day one. The rest of us that were still in our boats had to paddle around the bay and beach the boats. We set up camp for the first night and started making dinner and drying stuff off. Dinner the first night was Gato Gato (not like the Spanish cat, the t sounds more like a d when you say it. I just assume this is how you spell it.) What is this weird dish you ask? well it is spaghetti noodles with a bunch of yummy veggies chopped up and then a peanut butter sauce. Sounds kinda gross huh? I am here to inform you that it was delicious. :) The rest of the night included staying warm around the campfire and going to bed super early because it was dark and what else did we have to do?

Day 2 was much more successful. We did not however wake up at the planned 6am due to the continuing rain from the storm the night before. We all got up at about 7:30am and made breakfast, which was crunchy french toast, so delicious! This is where you mix oatmeal and almonds into the egg solution and cover the bread in it then put it on the pan. Best french toast I have ever had! After breakfast we cleaned everything and packed up our drenched tents and belongings. We got everything into the boats and then off we went. We paddled about 6 miles this day. We stopped along the way for some lunch which was pizza pitas. This is where you take pita pockets and fill it with pizza sauce, pepperoni, and cheese. Tasty. :p We also had a consistent supply of GORP! GORP stands for good ol' raisins and peanuts, basically trail mix but its more fun to say GORP. During our 6 miles of paddling that day we got drenched. Even though we were pretty wet anyway from the constant rain from the night before. It was so amazing when it was pouring when we were on the lake. It was decently warm outside so it wasn't miserable. But I will tell you that I absolutely hated rain until this trip. I have always been very angry when it rains on me and I get my clothes soaked. Had I not gotten over this the first day by changing my attitude towards it I probably would have been miserable the whole time. That night we found a pretty sweet camping place. We were elevated a bit on a flat above the water. The rain eventually turned into a mist that our bodies were used to by then that we didn't even notice. We set up camp and even though everything was wet one of our leaders (who is an eagle scout) and the Australian guy (Andy) got the fire going. Amazing! So we were all holding up our sleeping bags and clothes around the fire to try to dry them. Dinner for the night was stir fry. We all pitched in when it came to cooking. I did a lot of veggie chopping. After cleaning up from dinner we hung out around the fire until it started raining again and we all went to bed. That was the worst night of all. Terrible wind and lots of rain.

Day three we woke up at 730am again because of the rain. We made breakfast which was banana pancakes which were also very good. I have never had banana pancakes until then. There were a lot of things I hadn't tried or liked until this trip. Once again we got our boats packed and started out on the water. It was a bit chilly this day. We paddled like 7 miles and we stopped for lunch during those miles. Lunch for the day was pasta salad wraps. This was a mix of waky mac, veggies, and Italian dressing on tortillas. So good I just made some at home today! We also had snickers with lunch so everyone was on snickers power the rest of the paddling. We probably could have made one of those ridiculous commercials that snickers makes. At about 230pm we found our final destination! We had made it to our final camping spot for the trip. This is where we stayed for two nights. Our reward for getting all the way there was Oreos that were in the truck. yummmm! We got everything off the boats and two leaders went and got the van from the starting point. We loaded up all the boats onto the trailer and set up camp. It was dryer this day so our stuff got a change to dry out a bit. We were still pretty cold though because it was the coldest day of the trip. So we waited patiently for Andy the Aussie ;) to start our fire. However, all the wood was wet so it took a while. The night was filled with making dinner, cleaning up, and hanging around the campfire. We went to bed a bit later since it wasn't raining.

Day 4 was hiking day! Finally a chance to use our leg power instead of our arms. We woke up and made breakfast as usual which was breakfast burritos. We ate and cleaned up everything and got ready for the hike. The first part of the day was slow going for our hike. Not everyone was at the same pace so Andy and I hiked ahead pretty much the whole time. For me I have fast legs and Andy just had really long legs. We hiked about 5 miles and made it back to camp at 2:30pm. Some of us decided to go for another hike. We hiked about 6 more miles. My knees were really unhappy at this point. Once we made it back to camp the fire was already started. yay! We proceeded to make dinner and whatnot. The last night we just hung around the campfire and shared funny stories. Then went to bed to wake up at 5:30am the next day for our long venture home.

Day 5 was our 10 hour ride back to Ames. I slept, listened to music, and watched a movie. It was a really great experience and I have learned to appreciate outdoor activities more. Sounds really corny but it was an amazing time! I would recommend for everyone to sign up for one of these trips. I plan to go caving in New Mexico in December. So that'll be a good story too I'm sure.