Day One!
Youth Odyssey’s canoe camp adventure left for Karnack, Texas, at around 8am on June 26th. We arrived at Caddo Lake State Park about 5:30pm. Once the van was unloaded and the canoe trailer was left in the overflow parking, we started to setup camp. We then got dinner ready and had sandwiches because we were not able to get the camping stove lit to be able to cook a hot dinner.
After dinner, we hung around without a fire because there was a burn ban unfortunately. However, we were able to play cards and dominos. While this was going on, there was a crazy wind storm that was blowing tree branches down and hitting our tents and even hitting us! After this happened days later, the park host had told us that there was on record, up to 70 mile an hour winds. There would proceed to be small craft advisories on the lake for the next 3 days.
Day Two
We woke up around 7 AM and had chewy bars, apples, and oranges for breakfast. After breakfast, we hung out at the camp for a little while, and cleaned up. Then, we loaded up the van and went to Daingerfield State Park. The kids started out the morning swimming on the lake where there was a floating swim platform. They decided to play numerous games including “king of the dock”, where every camper was for themselves and had to get each other off the dock.
We took a lunch hour, and made some sandwiches. The kids got back into the lake after about an hour and a half, and continued to swim at Daingerfield until about 4pm. We decided to load everything up afterwards, and headed back to Caddo Lake State Park. Once back from Daingerfield, we began to start on dinner and made walking tacos. Everyone hung out until about 10pm. We talked to the kids, tried to show them a couple magic card tricks, played some cards, and dominos as well.
Day Three
We woke up about 7am and had fruit and chewy bars for breakfast. Since there was still a small craft advisory, we decided that we would go on a hike. We loaded up the van and went to the Red River Wildlife Refuge in Bossier, Louisiana. Once we arrived, we went into the office and got a trail map. We started hiking along a trail that took us through a heavily wooded area. The trail markers stated that we could see a large variety of wildlife while on the trail. One of the first animals that we saw was a rabbit that stood right on the trail as we walked by. At about an hour or so into the hike, we saw the back end of what appeared to be a copperhead snake. It quickly slithered into the brush away from us.
As we continued on the trail, we approached a sandy open area in front of a large body of water which is where we decided to take a rest. We ate some trial mix and chewy bars as a snack, and a few of the kids decided to take advantage of the water. They took their shoes off and had a little dip to cool off. Some of the kids were using this as an opportunity to learn how to skip some rocks, while others just sat back and relaxed to the calming movement of the water. We eventually returned to the start of the trail and loaded into the van. Once back at Caddo Lake, we started making ramen for dinner with grilled chicken. After dinner, we hung out until bedtime which was at about 10 PM.
Day Four
We woke up at around 7 AM and made breakfast tacos for the kids. They had plenty of options like bacon, eggs, cheese, and potatoes! After breakfast, we loaded up both vans and went to Daingerfield with the canoes. We launched the canoes into the lake from a boat ramp and started in the cove area. Some of the group decided they wanted to splash each other, so, that was a thing for about 30 minutes. We paddled across the lake and once we got to the other side, we had a canoe flip over that luckily had an experienced person in it (Mario). We then had to perform a T-rescue, and were successful in our efforts to flip the canoe back over.
Once everyone was back in their canoes, we paddled back to the other side of the lake and took the canoes back out of the water. After canoeing for a while, the kids decided that they wanted to swim again. The kids swam for about an hour, and we decided to have lunch under a very large tree that was close to the swimming hole. After swimming, we headed back to Caddo Lake. Once back at camp, we made pasta for dinner, which all the kids really enjoyed. After dinner, we hung out until 10 PM, then went to bed.
Day Five
We woke up around 7 AM, and made pancakes for breakfast! After breakfast, we cleaned up our camp, then loaded up the van to go to a pool. The pool was in Livingston, which was about 45 minutes away from Caddo Lake. The pool opened up at 12:30 PM, and we were the first group there which was nice. We had the entire pool to just us for a while. After about an hour and a half of swimming, we decided to have our wraps for lunch, poolside.
We swam until about 3:30 after lunch, and then headed back to Caddo Lake. Once we got back to Caddo, we hung out at the camp until we started making dinner. Some of the group decided that they wanted to play a game of catch with a tennis ball that was found earlier in the day. For dinner, we made ramen again since everyone loved it! After dinner, we loaded up all the cooking stuff to get it ready for our departure in the morning. We went to bed at 9:30 that night.
Day Six
We were on the road by 6 AM, and had lunch at Whataburger at 11:30. We finished our canoe camp adventure, and arrived back in Corpus Christi at 2:30pm.
Written by Christopher Day
