There are still some nice people out there, they just don’t work for local government!

It has been a long weekend.

I was going on a Kayaking/Camping trip with an “organized” group.  The idea was to start paddling Saturday morning, get to the half way point around 6pm, camp overnight and paddle the second day.  Fun as it was it was very badly organized.

It started a couple of weeks ago with the camping, we were coming from 150 miles away with a caravan, so we were talking to the group leader about making sure we could camp Friday night as well as Saturday night at the preserve.  Wednesday before the trip I got a copy of the permit, Saturday night ONLY.

A call to the New Jersey township resulted in a stern, absolutely not for changing the permit or camping Friday night.  But only after 3 days of chasing them down.  So we had no place to camp Friday night.

A quick bit of research and using Google satellite maps, we found a couple of truck stops and parking lots so we drove up there hoping.

Turns out that there is was a small furniture store right next to the preserve, and the owner was a great guy!,  I explained the permit situation and the kayaking thing and he was really interested, he said staying in his parking lot was totally fine so long as we were out before he opened at 10.  No problem, Kayaking started at 9, be there by 7, so we were out of his lot by 6:30.

Just to reiterate…. REALLY NICE GUY , if it wouldn’t compromise his privacy I’d tell you were he is and insist you buy something from him.

So we set up in his parking lot and took a walk up the street.  We were in a very cute part of Princeton, NJ, lots of older homes, with paved sidewalks.  If it wasn’t for having to be up early the next morning, we’d probably have spent a little longer exploring.
Up next morning early and moving the caravan onto the preserve.  Got picked up by a friend and get the put in point.

Here is where it got really disorganized.  No one knew where we were going, who was there who had equipment, etc.  After an hour though the organizer finally got his head round it and we started to get ready to go.  Then we meet Lisa, she was useless, I mean utterly useless.  Within 30 seconds of arriving she had lost her car keys and had all 20 of us out looking for them.  Once they were found, another 30 minutes for her to get ready and we finally set off.

The paddle really did show how little New Jersey residents think of their waterway system,  we are very used to dodging trees and plants, but the morning was more about dodging paint cans and shopping carts.  But we saw herons, frogs, turtles, hawks, lots of types of fish, groundhogs, and lots of other wildlife.  We had to keep stopping though because Lisa was so slow, that by the time we had paddled for an hour, she was an hour behind…. yes we couldn’t figure it out either, was she going backwards.

By the stop, according to the GPS we had been stopped 10 minutes longer than we had been moving!

This is where Gail and I took charge.  Gail and I don’t like following, especially when there is no one to follow.  When moving we had averaged 3mph.  We had 7 miles to go.  It had taken us 4.5 hours to get to the first stop.  There was much debate about having another stop, or keeping going, or where to stop.  Gail and I just stood up and said, 3mph, 7 Miles, 2.5 hours…… lets just paddle!!,  there was much murmuring of agreement, they handed Gail the radio to be point person and we set off.  The second part of the day was much more enjoyable.  Especially dashing for cover as the thunderstorms rolled overhead.

In the afternoon we saw a couple of cool dams which none of us had the nerve to paddle over and we went on Lake Carnegie which was fun.  Eventually reached the camp site around 4:30 where the ground grew had already chilled the beer

The evening was fun, everyone put up their tents, we set up the caravan, everyone appreciated the bathroom, running water and fridge.  We weren’t allowed an open fire so there was singing round a propane camping grill, had a visit from the local cop who wanted to check the permit (good job I hadn’t stayed Friday night), and everyone was off to bed.

It was cold, I was so glad for the heating, not sure how the tent people survived.

Sunday I woke up aching, to many aches, so I decided to skip day 2 of the paddle and come home.  Got in about noon, had a long bath and spent the afternoon evening sleeping on the couch before going to bed for some much needed Zzzzzzz’s.

All in a all a fun weekend.  I forgot to mention that out of this group, the disorganized ones were all government employees.  The rest of us seemed to have out heads screwed on right

Now I just have to look like I am working while I sleep some more at my desk, I ache!