Canoe trip part 1

Well, I'm back from the canoe trip and I had a blast. Friday night we got to the caddo river and spent the night at the landing catching crayfish and roasting marshmellows. I accidentally leaned against one of the roasting sticks and got gooey marshmellows all over my clothes. The next morning we had fresh doughnuts from town that were really good and around 9:30 to 10 we pushed off. After canoing for about two hours we stopped for lunch and swam for a little while. Then we continued for a few more hours and stopped at the "jumping rock" where we always stop. The jumping rock is a huge rock that sticks out of the water and the water is deep enough to jump into and we always stay there for an hour at least. While we were stopped I saw this fish in the water that looked like it was very sick and was sort of half floating half swimming and I thought to myself that I would like to catch that fish. Around that time a few more people saw the fish and so me and three other boys all jumped into the water to catch the fish. I was getting very close and then I had it.. and then I lost it. I had my hands around it but it slipped away. Then, one or two girls got on top of the rock so they could see it better and gave us directions on where the fish was because we couldn't see it from in the water. We then chased the fish for ten minutes but I was the only one who actually touched it. We finaly had to give up and so we went back to jumping off the rock until we had to go on. We canoed for another three hours or so (maybe longer) and then we got to the campsite. The closest we got to tumping over was after the jumping rock. We were going down the river and I was in the back steering when up ahead we here fast water. I was thinking that it was just fast water and it would be no problem. I was wrong. The river had a sharp bend in it and the water was going fast and then on one side there was a tree right up next to the water. The tree was sort of pulling you towards it and we hit that tree broadside, took on a little water and got a little bruised and wet. Daddy stopped the canoe (we were backwards) and pulled it in to the bank. He then proceeded to help everyone who came past there until our entire group which, by that time was spread out, had come past. In addition to our group he helped numerous other people. We must have waited 30 to 45 minutes! That was the closest we ever came to tumping over. Once we were at the campsite we put up our tent on the rocky and uncomfortable ground and I swam for the next hour or two. Then, I watched some people fishing for gar. There were a lot of gar this year and they were big. One guy caught one that was almost two feet long! After that we had a wonderful dinner of steak and mashed potatoes and salad and if you wanted you could have some fruit. Later that evening we had a lesson and then I went to bed. That is all for the first day and so I will end this post, but I will post day two later. Goodbye all!
-ellentia