We woke from our sleep in the woods of the Chattooga safe and ready for our last day of paddling for a little while…all we needed to do was set up a shuttle. This proved to be the most aggressive approach I’ve ever taken to getting a shuttle with people I’ve never even seen before.

After circling around like chickens with our heads cut off for a while we saw a huge van with boats on top. Zac slammed on the breaks, pealed a strip in beside the van, and I rolled down the window and yelled at the guy “Can we do a shuttle”. We couldn’t even hear what the guy said back but continued to yell shuttle, shuttle, shuttle, paddle, paddle, paddle. Anyway he actually gave us a shuttle and we had a super chill day on the river. The Chattooga is probably the most scenic river in the area with a big water fall entering the river half way down you can walk under, a beautiful mountain gorge, easy class III so you can relax and a rope swing out of a tree at the end of the run. Ben and Zac had a blast on the rope swing, with multiple back flip attempts (none anywhere close!) and a few sweet 360’s.

Our initial plan after the Chattooga was to head to Rock Island for a few days then go to the Ocoee for the weekend. Unfortunately the dam at Rock Island was broken so they weren’t releasing water and we weren’t willing to sit around until they released the Ocoee on the weekend so we started our trek across country to San Diego. Ben had a great place for us to stay in Louisiana. Clients of his from a biking trip were nice enough to put us up for the night in their pool house…defiantly our nicest night so far. Cathy, the maid who drove a Lexis, wanted to do everything for us. She did our laundry, made us breakfast and lunch then sent us on our way with a cooler full of food and a big hug. Jim and Sylvia (who owned the house) took us out for supper and basically did everything they could to make us happy. Thanks a lot guys!

We left Louisiana happy and probably ten pounds heavier ready to drive. Texas is huge! We drove and drove…and drove some more and were still in Texas. Once we hit the desert the drove flew by; mountains, cool rocks, vegetation I’ve never seen anywhere before and the sweetest part, cacti. Every type of cactus you could ever think of: big ones little ones, bushels of them, leafy ones, stringy ones and my favourite the cartoon cactus. The ones with a big trunk and two arms that are always on the signs at Mexican restaurants wearing sombrous. I looked for these forever, Zac and Ben both saw them before me and I was pissed…it’s all I wanted to see. Finally we came to a forest of them and I made Zac pull over to get a picture beside one. They were enormous! Some were bigger than telephone poles! After the photo we decided to take a closer look at a different kind that was there. Ben started touching it and got pricked every time but kept doing it then Zac walked right into one. I laughed hysterically the whole time until, of course, I took one to the leg. It was like they were picking on us, or pricking on us hahaha…right.

We’ll be in San Diego soon, stalking up on everything we can get for our tour across Mexico. First up, the Baja Peninsula. Keep an eye out for more updates because none of us speak Spanish and it’s going to be quite the adventure.