keep on rockin the free world
<<2002-05-06 - 8:00 pm>>

now comes the NOVEL part where i tell you all about my trip and sound really excited and in awe of everything. it's not all that special. but it puts me in a very good mood.

we went up to the really northern part of maine (about ten miles north of sheepscot bay) and basically just paddled around and slept in really uncomfortable places for four days. we must have paddled at least thirty miles. i know this morning we went seven miles in about two and a half hours, which is pretty good time. it was sooo fun. i remember we went to this tiny little island called powderhorn, it was probably about a quarter of a mile wide and long, and we sat on these nearly vertical sheets of rock and watched the sun go down. it wasn't nearly as beautiful as the cape cod sunsets, but the water smelled good and the twelve of us were just talking and laughing and enjoying being alive. the first two days sucked; we stayed at these really "campy" camp sites - a clearing in the middle for tents, pine needles all over the ground, a fire pit, an outhouse, etc etc. the outhouse quickly became my mortal enemy. powderhorn was the worst though - there wasn't even an outhouse. we went number two in a hole and then put it in a bag. i did NOT use that hole. i don't think i went to the bathroom at all for the twenty-four hours we spent at powderhorn. it was beautiful though, apart from the crap hole: basically just a quarter of a mile of flat land completely covered in sand and gnarled underbrush. the perimeter of the island was lined by long, jagged sheets of rock. beneath the rock was fine, cold sand and then right where the tide line stopped it turned to crappity smelling mud.

that reminds me: about the second day, it was super windy and the tide and current had all turned against us. we were paddling hard and all very tired at about lunch time. so we pulled into this little passage and after paddling for a while we came to this cove. the cove had a TINY channel that went northeast that led into a GIANT STRETCH OF ASSY MUDFLATS. i ruined my shoes. *sad face* the mud came up to my KNEES. normally i am VERY happy to get dirty and muddy, but there were NO SHOWERS and THIS MUD WAS ASSY LIKE NOBODY'S BUSINESS. it reeked. it sucked both of jacob's shoes down into its diarrhea-like depths. (i laughed when that happened. but then i stepped in the mud. i stopped laughing very quickly.) when we tied our boats to the rock and jumped across this tiny little bridge of rocks to a bigger chunk of rock where we all sat and ate our lunch, but the tide was rising so fast that within ten minutes the little bridge was gone and those of us without waterproof shoes had to crawl across a kayak to get back to our boats. total suckage.

i'd have to say the last night was the best part: it was a REALLY well-kept campground that looked almost like a golf course. the grass was lush and green and the trees were perfectly trimmed and all the same height. there were picnic benches, a flat stretch for sleeping bags & tents and whatever, and (GET THIS)... running water. for 25 cents we got an eight minute shower. there was cold water and hot water and flushing toilets. that was like paradise. me and lily and amanda chopped up vegetables for dinner and that was possibly the best time i've ever had chopping vegetables in my life. we had just paddled over ten miles without any idea where we were going - we got lost like five times and went around in circles like twice and it was just a big load of ass - and now we were in this beautiful place with running water and a nice hill to sleep on and the sky was clear and the air was warm and we had all bonded like crazy over the past three days. during dinner, aspen happened to knock amanda's bowl of rice into her lap, so amanda clapped her bowl onto aspen's head. they got into this HUGE food fight - grabbing handfuls of sauce and rice and veggies from like totally random bowls and plates and just hurling it like ANIMALS - and finally had to take another shower with a quarter we found under one of the toilets, haha. that was great. i have pictures... i can't wait til i get those back. i'm scanning those right away.

we made up trips songs and everything. on the seven-mile paddle back to civilization (this little town called wiscasset) we sang the whole way. we sang beatles, ramones, really old stuff like "domo arigato mr. roboto" and beach boys and just whatever came to mind. i think the best part came when i was humming 'last nite' and amanda was like "GASP! THE STROKES" and we both started HOWLING. "LAAAAASSST NIIIIITE, SSSSSHEEEEE SAAAAAAAID..." that was REALLY cool. amy, my rowing partner, was dancing and shaking her paddle. we nearly went over. it was TRES COOL. and when it got quiet and everyone was thinking, "man this is almost over... i just survived 96 hours of pure camp hell" i started to sing "yellow". that was perfect. when we pulled into dock in this little fishery place in wiscasset, i was singing "everything's not lost." i don't have a good voice by any means, but luckily i had memorized every note and it sounded pretty good. when we all threw ourselves into the van and opened all the windows and everyone was settling in for the three-hour car ride, evan (this really funny dude who paddled with lily for the whole four days) turned to me and told me he thought i had a future as a singer. that made me glow. even though i know it will never happen, cos that's not at all what i want.

i am sunburned like nobody's business. and me and aspen and lily bonded like nobody's business over the last few days. whenever any thought came to mind we shared it. you know those like "polite filters" that keep you from talking about diarrhea and periods and how boys are so gross and the filters that make you burp quietly or hold your farts? right, well, those were totally absent. lily and i had burping competitions. all four of us got our periods on nearly the same day. we all slept in the same tent. we talked about how our wetsuits (yes, we wore wet suits under all our clothes... THE PPPPAAAAAAAAIIIIINNNN!!!) was pinching in our crotches and everything.

i don't know. look at how much i wrote! jebus!!! well, i had fun. i see you guys left me lots of notes. i'd read them but i'm really exhausted. i can't believe we start school tomorrow morning.

i really feel like a dork for loving this so much. i didn't love it AT ALL the first few days, and the fact that lily and aspen really were enjoying it made me dislike it even more. but the turning point was the night at powderhorn. so many little crappy things happened on the trip that should have made me want to die (and they did, kind of) but the beautiful, sweet, perfect things overpowered it. definitely. and there was this REALLY sweet guy on the trip named dan, and he was just so sweet and nice and i totally fell in love with him for three days. and then i dunno i just fell out of love with him. my crush on him kind of made me feel like... blah. like, "ewww", almost. i don't know. i just know that some ditzy stupid skanky ho really likes him and aspen and lily told me NOT to like him. so i don't really. i'm just very fond of him. yeah.

so anyway. that's my trip. if you're still reading then i would laugh at you.