If you’re just joining us, HI! We’re so sorry if you’re here looking for stories of fantastic, sunny, glorious adventures that will make you want to take an extended canoe vacation. This blog is mostly for people who like reading about the suffering of those of us dumb enough to spend weeks at a time in a boat instead of the respectable “nice weekend camping on a lake” type of canoeing.
If you’ve been following the soggy-bottomed party for a while now, here’s what’s going on. We spent the last few weeks getting a nose job and a sweet rudder setup for the canoe with the help of Umiak Outfitters and some lovely folks from Mad River Canoes, and as I type this we’re sitting in a VERY seedy little motel outside of Cumberland, MD. I’m wrapping up some online coursework and preparing for a phone interview in the morning while Steve pores over our maps, and then tomorrow we’ve finagled ourselves a ride to Petersburg, WV to put in on the South Branch of the Potomac River. The goal is Point Lookout State Park in the Chesapeake Bay, and then paddling back upriver to a point where we can rent a car to get us back to the vehicle we’re abandoning in an undisclosed location while we make our way downriver.
Fun fact: the logistical work involved in these trips is WAY harder than the part where you’re actually in the boat.
We’re hoping to maaaaaybe be able to land a shuttle back up to the North Branch after hitting the confluence, but in a shocking turn of events the river is looking mightily LOW right now and if we end up spending the next week hiking the canoe through three inches of water, we might have to scrap that plan. There’ll be plenty of suffering either way.
Since we have a bad habit of drowning our electronics (and since I’m bad at typing with my thumbs), we’ll be doing a mass upload of Potomac blog posts once we get back in May. In the meantime, we’ll try to update our Instagram semi-regularly if and when we can pick up cell service, so follow us (@typetwofundamentals) if you want to see some sporadic photos of us in our natural habitat.
If you don’t hear from us in a while, we’re probably fine. We promise to let everyone know if we die, so hang in there and we’ll update when we can.