Ole man Scobie was trip leader for this outing and he secured us the usual camping area at Camp Hi Canoe Livery. As always the staff was courteous and very helpful and we had full run of the place. We set up camp around one of their shelter houses, which we were very grateful to have.
When Harold arrived around 10:00am on Friday, it was raining. Not a heavy rain but the steady all day type rain. And it did rain all day and all day Saturday. Tony showed up not long after Harold as they were going to fish all afternoon. Not wanting to spend the day out in the rain, they just checked out the different put in and takeout spots.
While in town Mantua having lunch, they stepped out the restaurant door to see Lance walking toward them. After handshakes, it was back to the campground.
Throughout the afternoon and evening people arrived and set up their tents. Using those E Z Up canopy systems, the folks that had them, set up their tents underneath to keep dry. Wil and Gloria drove in on their way home from vacationing in New York about the time Lance was setting his E Z Up. Since they broke camp in New York in a rain, Lance let them use his E Z Up to set up their tent, then they just moved the tent out to their spot. Talk about killing two birds with one stone. Judy and Paul arrived as did new member Jamie. Deb and Jock came and they cheated the rain by sleeping in their truck. We were glad Jock had his canoe trailer to help with shuttling. We all cooked our separate suppers and socialized. Since it rained all day, all evening and all night, we skipped any chance of a campfire and just played L-C-R. Newbie Jamie did OK for a first timer.
Saturday morning we awoke to what else but rain. Again it was the slow steady all day type. The temperature was in the 70's and the wind wasn't blowing, so with rain jackets on it wasn't so bad of a day. Tim arrived with his aluminum Grumman canoe and his poles for poling and after shuttling vehicles downstream, we hit the water from camp, around 10:00am.
The Cuyahoga River has a nice current in this section and paddling was fairly easy. Judy, Jamie and Harold were paddling kkkayaks. There were also five canoes which had to be constantly sponged out due to the rain. It is amazing how much water can collect in a boat from such a small rain.
While paddling through the Mantua area, which a week earlier had their annual Potato Festival, Harold found a small plastic duck. It was the kind of duck you would find at a carnival game where you raise the duck and look at a number on the bottom to win a prize. Through out the next mile, three more ducks were found resulting in two each of yellow and pink. They made nice bow ornaments for the water vessels. After paddling under Interstate 80, the toll road, we reached our takeout spot, putting 11 miles behind us. We loaded up, headed back to camp, and found dry clothing. Next, it was snack time. That rain really made everyone hungry.
Wil and Gloria had a prior engagement in western Ohio for Saturday evening and departed after packing up their wet tent for the second day in a row. The rest of the crew started getting around for the potluck. Laurie, who was on vacation until Saturday, showed up at chow time and joined us for our Mexican feast. After eating and cleaning up, something happened...it stopped raining.
A campfire was lit and everyone soon settled in around the fire and chatted while listening to Ohio State get whooped by USC in football. It wasn't long until one by one the tents beckoned their owners into their dry cozy surroundings and sleep.
Sunday dawned sunny. Yes, the sun was out, but the weather radio was calling for windy conditions and rain later in the day. We had breakfast and shuttled upstream for a 6-mile paddle back to camp. As we were launching our watercraft, in pulls Jonathan and his son Joshua. That made eight of us paddling on this fine late summer day. (Jamie was sore and did not paddle and Laurie did not have a boat) The water was perfect and we leaped frogged downstream while noticing the wind picking up. We made it back to camp and everyone called it a weekend.
Later in the day, Ohio had severe winds of up to 75 MPH causing lots of damage in the central part of the state. Good thing we were off the river!!
