A Series of Unfortunate Events

Our adventure started out rather smoothly.  We drove to our starting point, unloaded our water vessels, and waited for the Guides to arrange our returning transportation.  After catching a few frogs and playing with some Touchmenots, we set out.  Tom, Haley, and Matthew were in a canoe, Josh and Becca were in one, and John and I were in our own individual kyaks.  It wasn't a wild river, it was actually really calm.  It wasn't long until we were slowly making our way through a thick forest of lilypads.  It was difficult work, like rowing through mud.  Occasionally they thinned out, but for the most part it was very thick.  Finally, we reached our lunch spot.  We stopped at part of some camp, using their picnic table and outhouse.  After nearly stepping in bear poop, finding someone's underwear in the toilet, and almost getting caterpillar diseases, we headed towards the lake.  It was a large lake, and we were starting to get tired.  We got direction from some people in a boat, then headed to the river.  It was more of a creek.  A narrow, shallow creek, that steadily grew more narrow and more shallow and more buggy and mucky.  Soon it was almsot too thick to manuveur.  We were sure we'd come the wrong way, since we were traveling upstream now.  Tom and John, our guides, got out and went towards the sound of the road to see if they knew where we were.  I switche spots with Haley and we waited for them.  It couldn't have gotten any worse--that is, until it started raining.  Our guides came back, nearly getting sucked under the muck, and we started to head back the way we'd come.  We still weren't sure where we were.  It started to thunder, so we pulled off shore and headed up towards the road they'd found.  Tom, Haley, and I walked up to a cabin and asked for directions.  We found out we had gone in the completely wrong direction, heading East instead of West when we first got to the lake.  We thanked them and returned to our troop.  A decision was made:  our Guides would leave us, going alone back to the truck.  We waited for them, entertaining each other with tricky mind games.  It seemed like hours before they returned to rescue us.  We were hungry, thirsty, wet, cold and tired.  We loaded our canoes and kyaks and piled into our vehicles and returned home.  All in all, it was a great adventure, and we would do it again.