The 2002 Excursion took me to the Flint River and of all my early April trips, this was the best one yet. It's only about 100 miles from where I put in the river to Albany via the crows flight, but by the river it's about 160 miles. I only made it 80 miles so I'm really disappointed in myself. It was quite an adventure though.

All along the river the dogwood trees were blooming, there were scads of wild white, pink and red azeleas, and thousands of buckeye trees with their bright red blooms. There were quite a few white lillies growing along the side on the mountains and some kind of small yellow flower growing at the bank of the river. And if you looked close enough, there were a lot of violets along the banks too.

The wildlife was exciting too. I saw practically everything except snakes.

I'll describe the trip in segments. The segments are from one bridge to the next.
Segment 1, the rapids (6 miles)
Segment 2 (14.3 miles)
Segment 3 (11.6 miles)
Segment 4 (17.7 miles)
Segment 5 (3.2 miles)

I made it 52.8 miles on the first day. If I didn't have the wind in my face all day, I definitely think I would have gone much further.

Segment 6 (9.1 miles)
Segment 7 (14.6 miles)

And I didn't even do 24 miles the second day. What a disappointment. But I had an absolute blast the entire trip. I'm ready to try it again.