After everyone had finished their meals we all gathered by the table in the light of the campfire to discuss the plan for the next day. “Alright”, Michael started, “Today we did around fifteen miles which was pretty easy” he said to mutual nods of agreement. “Tomorrow will be a bit harder. We’ll be doing around sixteen miles tomorrow, which may not seem like too much more than today, but tomorrow we’ll be doing more flatwater, lakes deadwater ect.” After outlining the general route and where he expected to stop for lunch the group dispersed around the campsite.

Jonah, who had just stopped working at his seven week long summer job at the local scout camp went to the spot he had recently inhabited by the beach in his chair to catch up on sleep. Max started wandering off into the woods where we had gotten wood for the fire earlier mumbling something about carving a spoon, and Mr. Boatman (Jonah’s grandfather) grabbed his fly rod and marched over to the river. Before I could grab my knife and start whittling my dad called over to me. I found him kneeling by our shared tent, rustling inside his bag while whistling. As I strolled over, he suddenly stood up clutching something in his hand.  When I got closer I was able to discern that he was holding a stargazing map. I wasn't surprised. He was always going on about something new like some random new method to help our families beehive flourish. I was always fine with it though because after his rant I would get to talk about some new music id found or whatever me and my friends had talked about online that day. As he ushered me to the shore he started gushing about how clear the sky was that night and all the constellations we would see. So there we stood, under the stars, alone with our thoughts but at the same time together in the first leg of our adventure.