Rescue Day

Chaperoning The Calf Back To The Herd

 Day 12, July 6th

Early in the trip we found a young calf trapped below a steep bank of the river. Deciding to save the calf, Gabe led the rescue crew by placing life jackets around the frightened calf to lift it up the steep hill. Once in the field we released the calf and led it to its herd. Unfortunately, the herd was scared by us and ran away from where the calf was. The herd started to stampede toward us, but Emily told us how to scare them off by yelling and standing in a group. It worked! But that’s not all- after the herd ran, a huge mule came out of the woods and stared us down.  We won that battle… by not getting kicked.  Finally after these adventures, two groups went to find the owner.  After an hour we managed to leave a note for the owner and made it back to the river.

Around lunch time, we came across a storm and powered through it to meet Pat (the Upper James Riverkeeper) , who we previously met at Balcony Falls. We dug deep and managed to stay out of the storm; however, an up stream wind made paddling extremely difficult. We enjoyed PBJs for lunch along with fresh, COLD watermelon from Pat.

We enjoyed a long stretch of calm water, before reaching an entertaining series of rapids. It was a nice change of pace from the stiller waters we’ve experienced for the last few days. Some of us were so excited we couldn’t stay in our seats. Caleigh miraculously managed to be ejected from her canoe without capsizing, which Grant was thankful for and took with his usual smile.

Pat suggested getting in the water to swim/float and take a look at some aquatic life. We rafted up the boats and many of us hit the water; we all enjoyed “just going with the flow” for a while. Our swimmers managed to catch glimpses of long nosed gar and some small mouthed bass. After redistributing the floaters we picked everyone up and headed for camp in Scottsville.

The day had been long, but the final stretch to camp went quickly. We were greeted by our wonderful land crew, Sadie & Claire, along with family and friends who all lent a hand to get us unloaded and into camp. We ended the day with a short walk into town where some of us picked up goodies including sodas, ice cream, and smoothies. It was a great end to a long day we all went to bed tired and happy.

Gabe Gracefully Enters The Water For A Swim

Claire and Isaac Enjoy Treats Brought By Families

Checking Out Aquatic Wildlife