Thursday, July 2nd, 2015- Paddle down Balcony Falls and Breeden's bottom camping

Mountainside view of Balcony Falls

          Today was the last day of being on the water. It began with yummy bagels prepared by Aubrey and Charlie. We then had to carry our tents and all of our gear down several campsites because our previous campsite had been booked for the day. Unfortunately, due to inclement weather in the forecast we had to discuss alternate plans for the day. We had the choice to either spend the day in town or on the water. We decided to travel by car up to a put in near balcony falls. This way we could still enjoy the rapids even though we would not be able to camp on the beach in balcony falls. These were the biggest rapids we have traveled on this trip; we still had a lot of fun traveling the rapids. We had quite a few flips but everyone stayed safe. Three canoes were flipped due to the size of the white water but all paddles and two of the three canoes were recovered.  

 Luckily we did not receive the majority of the rain forecasted, and only felt a slight drizzle during our canoe downstream. Everyone was glad to be able to get a final paddle in for the trip. After we hiked around near Balcony Falls we took another car trip back to camp to put on some dry clothes. We drove out to Roanoke for delicious pizza at Bellacino’s. We enjoyed the air conditioning and plumbing before coming back to camp.

Our group relaxing at the campsite

Thomas and Will fishing after paddling

From there we enjoyed a relaxing evening together by fishing, catching crawfish, and playing Frisbee. Will managed to catch three smallmouth bass, and Hannah caught a bucket of crawfish. Then we all sat around the campfire and looked back on the amazing week and experiences we had all had together. Everyone has become so close in only this short week. The great leadership from the trip leaders and the chance for each of us to be leaders also, helped make this trip so enjoyable and such a great learning experience. We will never forget each other or this great adventure that we have shared together.

Ryan and Eleanor