day 1

the river was exploding in shouting and a literal stampede of canoes.  The first team to reach the "low bridge" would win a thousand dollars, so every team was sprinting for the that first quarter mile.  I never thought canoes could make the water so rough.  So here we were, three volunteer teachers with four hours's experience of rowing together, and it looked as if we were going to flip and then get run over.  Some canoes did flip, which required some last-second digs into the water to avoid hitting them.  Lucia earned her Indian name "Beautiful Hawkeyes" here, guiding me around tipped boats. I suppose that the low bridge had people we knew among the crowd, but my world had contracted to the 200 feet of water directly in front of my canoe and the thirty feet on either side.  We managed to steer under the bridge, an accomplishment as some canoes actually ended up sideways against the pilings, pinned by the current.  Then we were racing again, trying to maintain position in the pack.  The early morning sun reflected off the water and nearly blinded me, so I had to have Lucia shout "More to the left" or "Right! Right! Right!" from the front.
Day 1 was 49 miles, so I was very anxious if we would even be able to finish.  I simply did not know what our team was capable of.   What should have worried me more, and certainly was Betsy's greatest concern, were the dozens of rapids along our route.  The key to rapids is to keep on paddling. Pulling your oars out of the water robs the boat both of its balance and momentum.  The concept is the same as riding a bicycle: stop peddling, and it becomes a lot harder to stay upright.  But rapids are freaky, and its hard to think about paddling when six inches of water splash over the sides of the boat.  Nonetheless, we did well enough and kept our overall position.  However, after 90 minutes a fork in the river proved too much.  I did not pick a side to follow soon enough and we slammed into the small island in the middle of the river.  I had carefully instructed Betsy and Lucia to "never ever let go of your paddle if we tip."  They held on perfectly.  I promptly let go of my paddle when we tipped, proving that those who teach, can't do.  Four or five boats passed us while we were bailing the boat and getting back in.
Two hours later, this loss of position proved helpful,  we were just catching up to two boats when we came up on a much more dangerous set of rapids.  On the right was a huge dead tree, on the left currents swirled dangerously.  We watched as the two teams attempted the rapids.  The first team took the left and flipped in the current.  The second team took to the right and ended up running their canoe up onto the dead tree, where in promptly broke in half.  We breezed through the middle,  looking up just long enough to see three paddlers clinging to the tree. 
After seven hours of paddling we rounded a bend and were shocked to see the finish line of the first day.  We we were relieved.  I had a headache from steering through rapids, and we were all sore from the long day.  But we were done, and had arrived on our own steam.  It was a good day.