Kinzua Trip - Day 2

We woke up and the Asst. Zookeeper whipped up sausage and pancakes for breakfast. I should probably note that when we camp, we eat well.

The boys all tore down camp while I headed for my last shower for several days. For those who have never camped at Dew Drop, you are missing a precious experience. There is a button to push to get 2 minutes of hot water in the shower. It is located on the OUTSIDE of the shower stall. It is guaranteed to leave you with a head full of shampoo suds and freezing water. Now try to make it out of the shower stall and locate the magic button without opening your eyes because of the suds. Definitely a trick!

I returned to find camp packed up and stored in the truck. At which point I decided that maybe it wasn't such a bad thing to have three Heathens! At least they can break camp while I shower!

We headed back into Warren so that we could drive over to the boat launch on the other side of the lake (Roper's Hollow). As we were heading along the highway, we noticed that several cars ahead of us were stopped and people were walking on the highway and picking up pieces of something. I assumed someone lost a load on the way home from Lowe's, which was just up the road.

As the Asst. Zookeeper pulled into the passing lane to go around with the rest of traffic, I looked out my window to see what they were picking up. It was pieces of a bicycle and there was a little boy laying on the roadside bleeding. I screeched and Dan yanked the truck to the side. THANK GOD FOR EMT'S AND THANK GOD DAN IS ONE!!!!

He jumped out of the truck to help the boys who had been hit by a car. He had ridden his bicycle right in front of it. None of the people standing around were helping this little boy at all - which still strikes me as very strange.

I stayed in the truck with the Heathens until I saw another adult walk the little boy's friend across the highway to Dairy Queen and leave him there. The poor boy was standing in Dairy Queen's parking lot with tears streaming down his face and watching his friend lay on the roadside. After ordering the Heathens to stay in the truck, I crossed over to wait with the other boy until his father could get there to pick him up. The poor kid was shaking.

Dan helped until the ambulance got there. The called in the helicopter to fly the boy to Children's because he had lost consciousness. Warren doesn't have a trauma center. All in all, the boy was very lucky - no broken bones, alot of road rash, and what looked like a minor concussion.

Once we were all back in the truck, we headed for the boat launch at Roper's Hollow. This boat launch is located about 15 miles from town, down mostly unpaved roads and in the middle of nowhere. As we are going down the very steep last descent to the lake, the gas light on the truck comes on. We giggled and kept going.

After unloading and packing the canoes, we paddled the 5 miles to our favorite boat-in/hike-in campsite, Hooksbrook. It is always peaceful and quiet there. Except this year.

As we rounded the last bend to Hooksbrook, we were greeted with wall-to-wall boats. I've NEVER seen it that busy. As we were pulling into shore to look for a camp site, we started to get closer to a single man in a camo colored canoe. He had a 10 horsepower motor on the back of this canoe and he was sitting pretty low in the water. As we got closer, a wake came in off the lake and started to swamp his canoe. He calmly picked his gas can up above his head and sat in the silly thing while it went under and rolled on him. He never lost the gas can and it never got close to the water. Meanwhile, his friends on shore are yelling "Hold on Rabbit!" as they head for their fishing boat to rescue him. Bizarre.

We located a site well back into the cove where larger boats would not be able to make it in. I stayed at the site while the Asst. Zookeeper and Heathen #1 went to paddle the boats around to it. As Heathen #1 pulled in, I asked him where his father was because I couldn't see him. He responded that his dad was still paddling around the Hillbilly Hotel located at the point.\

This group of people at the point were interesting to say the least. There were 4 or 5 boats and probably a dozen tents. The ladies were floating in rafts on the lake and the guys on shore where THROWING them beer whenever they ran out. I'm surprised none of them drowned considering the amount of beer I saw thrown out into the water.

The Asst. Zookeeper and the Heathens went for firewood and we set up our camp. They even found one of the stumps that are on the lake shores and brought it back to burn. They make for very cool campfires.

After dinner and as it was starting to get dark, the Asst. Zookeeper started a fire. Once we had it burning pretty well, he put the stump on. The wind was perfect, it was blowing steadily in one direction so we didn't have to constantly duck to stay out of the fire smoke.

Quiet hours start at 10 pm on the lake. That's when the Hillbilly Hotel really got going. At midnight they were still yelling and singing at the top of their lungs. We were only partly listening. Until we realized that one of the ladies was screaming, "Whatever you're burning over there, stop it! It stinks! What is that? Incense?"

It dawned on us that our campfire smoke was blowing straight into their camp. The only thing in the fire was wood. Apparently, the stump in the fire smelled like burning tires and the Hillbilly Hotel did not appreciate the smell. Considering that it was after midnight, we really didn't care. The Asst. Zookeeper piled some more wet wood on the fire and we headed for bed.