Captain Harry

A group of ten or so of us spent this past weekend camping and rafting in North West New York.  The boo and I (by the time this posts) are in Peru and we couldn't fathom finding Harry a sitter for two vacations albeit camping was only a weekend.  After some phone calls and a confirmation from our friends, we were told we could bring Harry along!  Best, he could even come along on our rafting trip.  Which of course, provoked me to immediately buy this.  A huge un-blogworthy photo shoot accompanied the purchase once shipped. 

We traveled three hours up to Barryville, NY which sits nicely along the Delaware River.  After dealing with some car sickness and clean up we made it to our destination, Indian Head Canoes for some in-tents camping!  I can't help myself.

The first morning we suited up and got ready to spend 4 hours cruising down the Delaware.  More like 8 hours.  But that's what happens when you put beer in a raft...nobody paddles.  Harry behaved like the river captain gentleman he is throughout our journey. 

"Mommmmm STOP"

Harry wore his newest addition to the wardrobe and sat calmly in our raft.  After about 30 minutes on the river we tested out the life jacket by putting Harry in the river for a swim.  We can't tell if his expression is one of sheer terror or river captain focus, but we got scared and pulled him back into the boat, hoping for another opportunity to test Harry's open water swimming skills.

After hours of observing Harry, I came to the conclusion that perhaps to Mommy's disappointment, he doesn't like water.  He scratched and grumbled in frustration on the life jackets we laid down for him to snooze on until he found the driest place to sit.  Eventually he found the perfect position and shook snoozed until the sun dried him. 

Eventually Harry found the driest place to sit, which was on top of the cooler.  He stayed there for most of the trip down river keeping a sick first mate company. 

Although the trip itself was borderline torture after 7 hours of flat, non-rapid rowing, the sights were beautiful and I got some awesome framers out of our adventure.  Harry didn't cause any damage to the sturdy rafts and he was a laid back captain.  He saw a few other dog captains on the river but being that he wasn't a fan of the water separating them he didn't go overboard to say hello.  If you ever get the opportunity, rafting is probably one of the coolest activities you can do with your dog that's fun for all!