I drank a lot of Percy Priest...and I feel fine

The title doesn't quite have the same ring to it as the REM song, but I felt great after drinking several pints of purified Percy Priest water during an overnighter on the lake March 8th and 9th. With nary advance notice or preparation, Jason and I decided to do the overnight trip on the lake we had been planning last summer. The weather looked good for Monday and Tuesday and our Vanderbilt and Belmont spring breaks coincided, so we decided to head out.

We launched at Mona (near Murfreesboro), paddled to near Fate Sanders to camp on an island for the night, and we made our way to the dam Tuesday morning. Here are our tracks:

Mona to camp - Percy Priest

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Camp to Dam - Percy Priest

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I felt pretty good the first day, though my kayak was pulling right. I have thought this for a while about the Essence, however, I figured it was more related to my paddling technique. After 25 miles of paddling, I was sure (and very irate) that the kayak was pulling right. My right arm probably paddled 50% more than the left to keep the kayak in a straight line. We discovered my skeg was curved when we pulled the kayaks out of the water at the dam. I contacted contacting Perception and letting them know about the problem, and a week later I had a new skeg delivered via UPS free of charge. Kudos to a company that stands behind their products!

This being my second kayak/camping trip, I am getting better at bringing only the necessities. I used almost everything I brought and didn't want for anything. I had some leftover food, but that is a good thing...nothing worse than being on an island overnight and running out of food. I need to bring a mug for the next trip...sipping hot chocolate (wait, I need to bring hot chocolate too, that was borrowed from Jason) directly from a pot that transfered heat very, very well almost resulted in leaving a millimeter of lip tissue on the hot surface.

Click here for some of my favorite pictures from the trip.