Here's the thing. All these beloved pieces of gear aren't worth much if they're not being used. Our canoe trailer is nowhere near as sexy sitting in someone's driveway in Green Hills. You cannot, by definition, have a tradition if you don't go out and do it repeatedly.
The only thing that really matters is getting together, getting out of town, and getting on a river. So it did not take us long at all to figure out that a year was too long to wait for the next one and we soon added a fall trip. Later we started leaving on Friday afternoon and spending the first night somewhere locally near the put-in. Now the extra night is almost always on the river. At some point we looked up and we had doubled, then quadrupled, our paddling and camping time and what could be better than that.
Since it's the adventure itself that really matter, here's a thumbnail tour of all 24 RRCC trips so far. They represent 375 miles of paddling, roughly 900 riverman days on the water, and 600 riverman nights in tents. We're still running the numbers on cans of beer and sticks of butter.
Spring 2004, Stones River
Spring 2005, Duck River
Fall 2005, Duck River
Spring 2006, Piney River
Fall 2006, Elk River
Spring 2007, Green River
Fall 2007, Lower Buffalo River
Spring 2008, Dale Hollow Lake
Fall 2008, Sequatchie River
Spring 2009, Chicago River
Fall 2009, Yellow Creek
Spring 2010, Upper Buffalo River
Fall 2010, Eleven Point River
Spring 2011, Big Swan Creek
Fall 2011, Duck River
Spring 2012, Current River
Fall 2012, Duck River
Spring 2013, Upper Duck River
Fall 2013, Lower Duck River
Spring 2014, Red River
Fall 2014, Piney River
Spring 2015, Buffalo River
Fall 2015, Buffalo River
Spring 2016, Duck River
