Or, in English if you rather: Brian and Laurie go camping.

For our first anniversary, Brian and I took a three-day, two-night kayak/camp trip down the Allegheny River. Shortly thereafter, a friend told us about nearby French Creek. We almost immediately started contemplating that trip, and we had it fully planned a number of times. But the first attempt was a thunderstorm weekend, so we cancelled. Then we delayed it because I wasn’t recovered enough from some hip surgery. [Repeat that surgery scenario seven times.] Somewhere in the middle of that, we had to cancel because we were in the middle of a tremendous drought and water levels weren’t sufficient.

Last weekend, however, we went! We paddled from near Meadville, Pennsylvania, to Utica. Unfortunately it was a crowded weekend on the water with a lot of party floats and raucous (rude) people, but we enjoyed our time nevertheless!

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We brought my hiking poles along and between those and Brian’s super-human strength, I was able to get in and out of my kayak and around the campsite with a bearable amount of hip pain.

We could have done the 18ish-mile paddle in one day, but divided it into two, with the second day just being just shy of two miles. We also missed several of the recommended campsite islands, but made do with the island we chose, which was covered in magnificent ferns that reached higher than my waist! We also had several deer snort at us and come very close by our tent. We also dehydrate our own meals that usually consist of brown rice, meat (ground venison, sausage or turkey) and a veggie medley. Then, we bring a vial of olive oil to add some fat to the meal and a container of garlic powder and creole seasoning.

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Although we didn’t see any bald eagles, we heard one in the early morning, and got to see osprey, geese, several varieties of ducks and other birds.

We ended the weekend with a stop at Trails to Ales brewery in Franklin. The food and beer is jaw-dropping delicious! Favorites include their steam beer, chocolate porter, wood-fired pretzel with cheese drip and the beet-goat cheese salad.

This trip also made us very excited for our Maine trip later this year to paddle part of the Maine Island Trail!