One summer day my dad and I went on a canoeing trip on little Ossipie river. It was a two day trip and my mom dropped us off in the morning. Once the canoe was out of the truck my mom drove off and my dad and I brought the canoe down off a little hill and set it down. First we got everything everything ready like our fishing poles and what lures we were gonna use and our life jackets and got our drinks out so we wouldn’t get dehydrated.

After we had got in the water I realized that it was a little foggy or misty but not that much , all though I could tell it was going to be a sunny day. Two minuets in the water we saw a deer, you could smell it too it smelt like mildew, not even one hundred yards from where we got dropped off from. It was just a doe crossing the river on a part that wasn't that deep. At the beginning of the river the water was really shallow, it was like that for a long part of the river. All up and down the banks of the river were tons and tons of deer tracks.

My dad had caught the first fish of the day, I would of but I kept setting the hook wrong. I hate it when my dad catches more fish then me, because he starts bragging and I would just stop fishing for a while, and be angry at him. Although I did catch a very strange thing when we were fishing. We came up to a fallen tree in the water and I saw a frog. I put my lure right on the log next to the frog and he jumped at it and bit it. He wouldn’t let go of it, and the hook didn’t get him either, probably because it was a rubber lure and the hook was hidden in it. Eventually the frog let go and bit it again! My dad and I couldn’t believe it that must of been the most bravest frog to do that twice, or maybe he was just hungry.

We went a little bit down the river and came to spot where the it was so shallow that we had to walk the canoe to a certain point. The way there my dad saw a craw fish that looked unusual, it had red spots all up and down its back and tail. He thought it looked cool so he took a picture of it. After we got out of the shallow area we started to hear something, it sounded loud and thrashing. We turned the corner on the river and it got louder, then we saw water splashing everywhere and jagged rocks. “Should I put my life jacket on?” I asked. “No I think you’ll be fine” he told me. So my dad and I each stood on a rock and started fishing.

We actually caught a lot of fish at that spot, I remember that I caught a bass and a bunch of these fish I called no name fish, and my dad caught a bunch of them too. I forgot to add that there were these strange fish. They were all the same type but when they are small their gray and silver, when they get bigger they get a pinkish purplish color. My dad and I found them when we came to a deep fishing hole. Well it looked deep to us because a lot of the river was shallow. So anyway we were at the hole and I casted only about five feet away from the boat so I could kinda just bob my lure up and down. I had a tug on my pole, then it was gone, I had another tug on my pole, then it was gone. The next time I felt a tug I jerked the rod and set the hook!

He was on, and I reeled it up and I thought it was a trout. My dad and I looked at and were surprised of this new type of fish. I took it off my hook and threw it back in. Then we kept catching them like crazy, we were catching them left and right, there must have been a whole school on them! We went down the river and I casted out and
my dad did the same. Then I had something on my hook, something big. It was putting up a mean fight but I finally caught it. It was the same type of fish that I caught before but it was bigger and pinkish and purplish. My dad took a picture of it and put the camera away in a plastic baggie.

So when I was talking about fishing on the rapids before I was gonna say that we caught a lot of those no name fish. Anyway a little more ways down the river we went under a bridge that was kind of near the Doles orchard farm where my family goes every year to pick apples, blueberries, and strawberries. Anyway I’m gonna skip to a really good part. We came to a spot under another bridge where the beginning of it was nice and calm, but on the other side it was at least a quarter of a mile of rapids. Before we went down the rapids we started to fish for a little bit on some rocks.

We started to go down the rapids, and these ones weren’t those little ones I was talking about before. These were tricky because the water looked shallow and the ground was flat rocks and at some points they acted like stairs while the water was going like thirty miles per hour. When we went on the rapids there was a family on the side of them. Their dog started to come at us but he was harmless. The dad came over and got his dog and asked us if we needed help. He helped us for a little bit and went back. I remember this one spot at the rapids where I walk down this curved part and slipped and fell on my hands. My wrist started to hurt and my dad asked if I was ok. I told him I was but my wrist still hurt really bad.

We came to a spot that was so loud and it looked like a whirlpool of explosions and chaos. I put my life jacket on in a hurry, then I got sucked up and the currents dragged me pretty far down. I had hurt my foot so I walked on the side of the river until the rapids ended. Once we got to the spot on the river bank we walked around. We had never been there before and there was a tire swing. We cleared some of the grass so we could walk around. My dad an I unpacked everything on the spot and collected fire wood. For our tent we tied a piece of rope to two trees next to each other. Then we put two tarps on the rope and that was our tent. I brought a flint fire starter.

Two of the fish that we caught we put over the fire and cooked. After we gutted the fish we threw the guts in the river. My dad and I went fishing while the fire was going. When we came back the fish were done and we ate. My dad had brought sausage incase the fish tasted bad and it did. When it was time to go to sleep we put our shoes over the fire to dry and filled the fire with wood that we found. Right when we were all settled and laying down with our food tied up in a tree we heard splashing in the water.

We both jumped right up and ran to see what it was. My dad was shining the flashlight and we saw at least five to six snapping turtles. They were huge too! Also they were all eating the fish guts that we threw in the river earlier. All night we heard some type of bird making this really weird noise. In the morning we had the rest of the sausage for breakfast. We got all of our stuff together and packed it all in the canoe and got all of out lures ready. Then we started to paddle off.

After a while we came to a spot where there was a fallen tree across the river. There wasn’t any room to squeeze through, so we had to pick up the canoe and carry it around the tree. Before we did that my dad wanted to fish next to the fallen tree. We actually caught a lot of fish right there. Still at this point there were tons of deer tracks all over the banks of the river. There was this one spot where a turtle’s stomach made a path while coming out of the water. When we were just cruising we saw huge cliffs along the right side of the river.

After a few hours of paddling we came up to some small rapids that were pretty easy to go through. The river we were on (Little Ossipie) came out to the Saco river. My dad has always told me if I catch a pickerel kill it. He said that because pickerels eat three times their body wait a day, which it really bad because they eat all the other fish and their eggs. Anyway we were getting close to our destination and their was a public fishing area right next to the destination.

I caught a pickerel right next to it, so I started to bash it’s head off the side of the canoe. It was really loud too and their were people nearby when I did this. They were staring at me like I was crazy then they hurried and reeled up their rods and ran off. We came up to the entrance with our canoe and got out. Then I walked up the trail to see if we were at the right spot. When I started walking back their were some elders sitting at the table. They were all men and I think a little lost. One of them started to talk to me and tried giving my a four leaf clover. Then they all started arguing and say it was fake, but the man said their was a whole patch of them next to this sign. I silently walked away while they were all arguing.

I walked up the small driveway type thing to the sign that said something about the Saco river. I waited there until I saw my mom start driving up in the distance. I stood there until she saw me and she turned into the spot and drove over to the canoe. My dad and I picked up the canoe and put it in the boat. I said hi to my mom and little sister then got in the truck. Then we drove down the road to a variety store and all got ice creams. Then we went to a picnic table and all ate the ice creams and went home.