April 15 Reflection

Today was a pretty bland day. I woke up at about 9, got to school at 9:30 where Ben met me at the door. We realized we didn't have to be back until last period of the day, so I turned right back around and went to Ben's house to work on the script. The script is tedious work- we have to write the dialogue as well as indicate what video we want playing at the same time. We are using a legitament screen writing software called Celtx so it looks pretty official. After school, we returned to Ben's to crank out some more. It was pretty nice to be able to project our computer screens up on the big screen at his house. We wanted to finish today, but it looks like tomorrow will be our new deadline to complete the script as it is taking longer than expected.

April 14th Reflection

Today I had classes to begin and end my day. In the middle, I was able to get some productive work done for our script-sort of. During the second period of the day I began working on an outline. It was hard working without Ben there to bounce ideas off of, but I was able to get some ideas down on paper. However, the very next period we spent about half an hour talking with Mr. Silverman about potential story lines for the video. He ended up steering us away from the direction that I had been going in- solely about conservation- towards a more "interesting" story of our experiences. He made a good point by saying that anyone can get stock footage and make a conservation film, but since we have our own footage we should try to make the documentary centered on our trip- the people, the hardship, the good times, etc. Ben and I both liked this idea so I think we will go with it. Sadly, going with this idea meant I had to scrap most of the work I did in my first period of the day. I guess it is all part of the process. At about 5 oclock Ben came over to finish unpacking. All of our stuff had finished drying so we now had to put it away. At about 6:30 we got side tracked and started to work on our script. We actually worked very efficiently straight through dinner till about 9 oclock. Our goal is to finish the script tomorrow so we can start the editing process.

April 13th Reflection

Today we started to get settled into the school routine again. I had 2 classes 3 off periods which was pretty unusual. However, I felt that I was decently productive during those periods. I accidentally went to my English class when I didn't have to, but luckily they had a work period for a paper and I was able to knock out some early research on the Apalachicola River. During my next free period, Ben and I overlapped and were able to organize our footage using one of the computers in Mrs. Walters photo room. We had to tediously organize all of our pictures and videos into day by day folders because the time-stamps on our cameras were messed up. We worked well into lunch which was painful because we were missing our first fried ravioli lunch in a while! Last period of the day I tried to find Mr Silverman to schedule a meeting so he could help us out with some editing software, but he had a class so I sent him an email instead. I also began a Google Doc with Ben so we can tackle our script for the documentary. Tomorrow we will see the rest of the footage and decide what direction we would like the documentary to head. This should help to spark some ideas on what the film should cover exactly.

Day 12 (April 10)

Today we unwound from our trip. I was able to sleep in after getting home late last night.  Ben and I started our day at around 12:30 when he came over to help me unload the car.  We literally had a truckload of supplies from our trip to take out- all of which were wet and smelled terrible.  We laid out our camping supplies such as the tent, sleeping pads, and sleeping bags to air out for a while. We still have a lot to do once the equipment dries out, but we will let it sit for a few days. I started a load of laundry which is currently being washed for the 3rd time downstairs (that moldy smell still won't go away!).  At about 2:30 we went back over to Bens house and reviewed footage.  We didn't even get half way through all of the tapes that we have but it was nice to see that most of the film turned out nicely.  We also started to think about a possible script for our documentary and how we could piece our footage together.  

Day 11

Today was our first day back in civilization.  It felt so good to sleep in and not having to worry about breaking down camp.  Ben had to head back around 12 or so, but I had a free day so my family and I stayed behind.  Yesterday I saw a bunch of redfish getting scared off of a flat about 2 miles from the end.  I wasn't able to try and fish because we had to keep paddling, so I wanted to make sure that I at least tried to catch them today. Well, after 10 days I still wasn't tired of my little red kayak and my dad and I relaunched them this afternoon to go try to catch dinner.   We saw a bunch of fish but were only able to catch one redfish and a couple of freshwater largemouth bass right on the edge of the gulf. 

Later in the afternoon, my family and I stopped by the Apalachicola Riverkeeper. A woman named Shannon showed us around the office and gave us thirty minutes worth of information about the importance of the river to the ecosystem. Basically the river supplies fresh water that the entire estuary system needs to survive.  The water in the river is completely fresh almost all the way to the gulf, and the Apalachicola Bay water is brackish (meaning half fresh and half salt).  This type of environment is perfect for baby fish and other species as supposedly the larger predators do not like the brackish water.  We really enjoyed our time at the office and I will be in touch with Shannon throughout the remainder of the project.

The rest of the day we drove home.

Day 10

It feels very strange to be typing this blog in the comfort of an actual bed!

This morning we knew that we had a decision to make- whether to split up the remaining miles into 2 days, or do it all in 1 day.  We slept in anyways and got up around 9, took our usual 2 hours to get packed and left around 11.  We were still pondering the idea of splitting up the remaining distance for two days until we saw one of the mile markers on the side of the river.  It said 20.3, meaning we had 20.3 miles until we reached Apalachicola.  Once we saw that sign, each mile marker that we saw became a sign that also seemed to say "X miles until real food, X miles until a hot shower, X miles until dry, clean clothes" and that was plenty of motivation to keep paddling.   Don't get me wrong, we have had a great time and those inconveniences were easily dealt with on the river, but we were not opposed to sleeping in a warm bed with real sheets!

We ended up paddling a rough 24 miles today. We saw plenty of wildlife again, such as bald eagles and tarpon.  It was very difficult to film/ photograph some of these things because all of our cameras have to be in waterproof cases, so they are hard to get out quickly.  We arrived at around 5:30 and were met by our overly excited parents at the marina.  More importantly, we had a great filling dinner at Boss Oysters. What a great way to spend my birthday!

Tomorrow we were supposed to still be paddling. However, we have decided to spend the day exploring the area around Apalachicola both in kayaks (they will finally be light and easy to paddle without all of our gear) and by car.  Also we will have time to review some of the footage and see what other shots we made need to get while we are here.

Day 9

We did not have any service at our campsite so I am just now getting up the blog for yesterday. 

Day 9

Today we knew we had a long but interesting day in front of us.  We finally got out of camp before 10:30, scooting out at about 10 or so.  Our GPS died so we do not know exactly how far we went in total, but I am guessing we went around 22 miles.  We started our day by paddling about 5 miles to the Chipola Cuttoff. This is a large creek that juts off of the side of the Apalachicola and goes towards what is known as the Dead Lakes.  The Dead lakes are

a series of lakes that look- dead.  There are huge Cyprus trees growing out of the water with Spanish moss hanging down, and stumps littering the whole lake.  It is a very fun but somewhat spooky place to paddle. We left the Dead Lakes  and continued down the Chipola for about 15 or so miles until we ran back into the apalachicola river. About 5 miles down the Chipola, we ran into a nice man who asked us about our trip. We told him where we had come from and talked about the Dead Lakes. He told us about a somewhat unknown part of the lake called Cotton Lake that is crystal clear. It is fed by springs, so the water is pure and fresh with about 30 feet of visibility.  We really wished we had run into him earlier!

Once we got back to the Apalachicola, we still had a couple miles until our campsite. We chose to stay at Hickory Landing, a designated campsite about a mile up what is known as Owl Creek.  This was another cool trip with Cyprus tree swamps that you can paddle through.  We got to the cell service deprived campsite at about 7:45, with just enough light to film ourselves setting up camp.  We fell asleep to an absolutely terrifying screeching noise coming from the swamp- still not sure what that was exactly!