What is the Key to a Good Float Trip?
By: Nick Keehler
Tags: Outdoors, Creative Non Fiction, Relationships, Travel, Life

What is the Key to a Good Float Trip?

It’s the same as the key to a good life.

Photo by Jake Ballard on Unsplash

We push out from the river bank and I paddle a few times until we’re straightened out and headed downriver at the meandering pace of the current. I thought it would be best to put the cooler with you at the front of the canoe, considering the weight distribution. I assumed you wouldn’t want to be sticking three feet out of the water.

“Can you hook me up?” I ask.

You pop the cooler and throw me a Redd’s Apple Ale, then pull out the mixed vodka drink you made before we left. It’s nothing fancy but it does the job. I crack the can and take a sip, making sure to face the label out so I can joke about getting that Instagram sponsorship I’m sure we’ll never get.

Still waiting for that Instagram sponsorship by the way. <Photo by Author>

We both have a good laugh and then settle into our seats. For the next six hours, we’ll have nothing to do but float down a river, admire the domesticated wilderness, and hop out to swim every now and then.

Your turn around and ask me a strange question, “Do you know what the key to a good float trip is?”

I keep one hand on my drink and rest the other on the wooden oar because the key to a good float trip is the same as the key to a good life.

“Balance,” I answer confidently. “You have to paddle just enough to keep yourself on course. Not so much that you wear yourself out, and not so little that you go careening into every fallen log and end up stranded on the river.”

“Hm…” You get that same smug look on your face that you have every time you know more than me. “Nope, that’s a good start though!”

What? I think to myself. No. Of course, that’s it. There are only two options in a canoe: paddle or don’t paddle. The best option is a balance between the two! Just like life, you shouldn’t work too hard or too little. This has been my life philosophy since I was a little kid. That was the key!

What else could it be?

One of the worst things you can do on a float trip is getting in your boat with the goal of making it to the end. The finish line can’t be the objective, otherwise, you’ll end up paddling too much. If you paddle too much, you just end up rushing down the river. You’ll climb out of your boat and collapse, exhausted and aching.

But that’s nothing. The worst part about paddling too much is that when someone asks you, “What was your favorite part of the journey?” You’ll have nothing to tell them. The cool water, the trees, the fish, the serenity, even the sense of adventure, you will have experienced none of it. All you’ll be able to remember is paddling, and paddling is no fun. No one wants to lay on their death bed and realize that they never even enjoyed their life.

On the flip side of this, you can’t spend all your time laying back and staring at the trees. If that happens you won’t make it to the end! Or, to put it more accurately, you’ll meet an early end! If you never paddle and never put in any work, then your canoe will lodge itself somewhere, and you’ll starve your way to an early grave.

You have to be willing to put in a little work in order to enjoy your float trip! You have to put in a little work to enjoy your life!

“No!” I insist. “The key to a good float trip is balance! You paddle enough to keep moving forward and let the river do the rest. During the times you’re not paddling you’re free to enjoy the beauty of nature!”

“Like I said, that’s a good start.”

I resign myself. “Fine, what’s the key to a good float trip then?”

“The key to a good float trip,” you start off slowly, “is the people you get in the boat with, and…” You lob another can of Redd’s over your head. I remove my hand from the paddle and swipe it out of the air while you continue, “And a drink or five never hurts.”