just doin' my job on the river patrol...

(Andy keeps saying that, so it seemed like a good title)

After our visit to Big Pocono State Park (the 14th PA State Park that we've visited together), we continued on up to set up camp for the night to get out on river patrol the following morning. The last time we attempted to go out on patrol, the river was high, so we went on a powerboat ride-along with one of the park rangers. This was our first time staying at the campsite, which we had to ourselves!

all these truck, kayak, and campsite pictures look the same, don't they?

This is our first year on the river patrol, so we're newbies. Our schedules (and the weather) allowed us to head up this past weekend, which coincided with a skills drill--combat swimming and throw bags. We belly-flopped into the water (sadly, i have no pictures), swam hard perpendicular to the current, slid in behind a rock, waited, swam back towards shore where other National Park Service seasonal staff and river patrol volunteers were waiting with throw bags (if you're wondering what I'm talking about, this is not us, but check out this page here). I had two PERFECT throw bag tosses and was able to catch the person on the first try each time (which I was later complimented on, yay!).

Once we had the practice time, it was about time we headed out on the river with an experienced member of the river patrol. With a little shuttling around, we were finally on the water just after 11:30am. We had about a 7 mile stretch with a couple of Class II rapids. We told people to make sure life jackets were on the kids and warned them of the rapids coming up. The only rescue of the day was a paddle and a life jacket (thank goodness!).

beautiful views!

waterfall into the Delaware

It was overall a beautiful day. By the time we packed up, got on the road, stopped and ate dinner, and got back home it was 8:30pm, and we had to clean off our gear, unpack the truck, shower, etc. It was a late night, and I'm still very tired (oh yeah, and summer hours started at work, which means that I'm at work at 7am now!).

me in my boat!

 Looking forward to another exciting weekend! Do you have any plans?