Wednesday was an amazing adventure on the Nantahala River with my Kenan Fellows. We had the smallest group of three fellows and a guide, but were lucky enough to have our guide double as a botanist. It was so amazing how each of us could point out a plant and he could give us the Latin name, in which we would respond ‘the English version please’. We even discovered a plant that helped with poison ivy, which was particularly helpful to me. I had managed to get into some while checking my camera traps for emammal and the particular plant did help relieve the itchiness of it all. It was either that or the 45 degree water was distracting my thought process.
I loved how we stopped multiple times while rafting and were given a history lesson, a botany lesson, or experienced some local culture. This to me made all the difference in the world. I even spoke with our guide on how I might be able to grow some of these native species in my classroom for my students to enjoy. Thank you so much to Kenan for refreshing my love for white water rafting and I definitely plan on doing some more rafting in the future. 
