Trip Week

Preparation has begun in earnest!

If the river level is going to be high, we should try to pack a little better. Better doesn't necessarily mean lighter, sometimes it just means putting the beer and steaks in the canoes of our most experienced paddlers. The real problem is not the weight anyway - it's the sheer volume of crap. The unnecessary bulk that piles up over the gunwales makes you top heavy which is not good when the river is running high and pushy. Even with a dutch oven or two in the floorboards, you can get in trouble going through sweepers in high water if you have a tower of gear in the middle of the canoe that gets caught in branches. So without issuing any broad orders or anything, try to be conscious of the amount of stuff you bring.

Biggest space suckers:

1. Guitar cases

2. Excessive beer supply, even by our standards

3. Inefficient (i.e. zero) tent planning

4. Deluxe camp chairs. Since when did we become so women-tended that we're too good to sit on a beer cooler? Which we already have too many of anyway (see #2).

5. Utensils

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WEATHER UPDATE

The weather forecast for the middle of this week is depressing, even though the weekend itself looks nice. Not sure how much new water the river can stand. We probably won't make an official decision until Saturday morning. We will not paddle the Sequatchie if it's dangerously high, but we will be in canoes one way or another. So there is no "cancellation policy" and no rain date. We have a Plan B, we just don't know exactly what it is yet...