Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: DREDIOCK on August 12, 2007, 01:38:35 AM
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A bit long but...
As some of you may or may not remember. I often like to take my canoe camping with me. My all time favorite spot is the Upper Delaware River.
In the last 23 years I've made the same trip down the same stretch of river anywhere from 2-5 times a year.
Often several days in a row.
I can easily estimate that I've been down this particular scratch of river no less then 60 times.
I've even done it albeit unintentionally in the black of night.
I've gone through her rapids front wards, backwards and sideways.
I've gone through it with the water low after drought, and high with the water so mucked up from heavy rain it more resembles Chocolate milk.
And just about everything in between.
Obviously the point I'm getting at. is
I KNOW. this stretch of river and damn near every rock and rapid in it like I do my own backyard. Like a lifetime old friend.
Just as much. I'm more then just pretty damn good at being able to read the water. Noticing subtle little hints as to what's below and how deep.
What little rises are safe to go over with little more then a scrape and which ones to go around.
and on this stretch of river in particular
What rapids are cool to just plow through and where the whitecaps for a nice splashing effect and which ones to plan out.
I'll often take people with me who have never been on a river trip before and generally show them a good time.
Never. Not one single time in all my trips have I flipped or swamped my canoe to the point where anyone ever came close to having to swim for it
I learned today even old friends can throw you a curve ball now and again.
And that section of river can still hold a surprise or two even I wouldn't expect.
Today for the first time in 23 years on that river my craft flipped and swamped out not once. but twice.
To add insult to injury (my pride being the only injury)
My 71 year old mother was with us.
Now before anyone panics. My mother god bless her is in fantastic shape for 71. and still a pretty good swimmer for her age.
If she wasn't I would not have taken her .
I'd been wanting to take her for some years. but every year she was up visiting. Either life got in the way or the weather didn't co operate.
Today conditions were perfect for a day trip.
so we headed up to do it.
We (including her)wanted to do it before she really did get too old.
So, her, My wife, and my 10 year old daughter decided to go for it.
Her being the adventurous sort was only too happy to go along.
We put as I usually do in at the Narrowsburg bridge and our take out point was just below the Kunkill Rapids. which is about a 4-5 hour trip.
Most of the trip was uneventful. We got on the river at 3:00 which put us right at the tail end of all the hoards of floaters from all the campsites.
So we ended up pretty much having the river all to ourselves.
Was real nice and for the most part uneventful.
My daughter and I drowning some worms and my wife and mother taking in and enjoying the scenery.
Shooting the occasional rapid which were pretty mild for the most part.
We bumped into a few rocks which gave my mom some needed practice on how to shift your weight around in such instances.
She did fine
After a couple of hours we made it past the "Ten Mile Run" portion of the river.
Fishing was slow at that point. Only a couple small small mouths.
Then I locked into and landed a nice 14 incher. Gotta love the fight those things put up.
A little farther down she go through another set of rapids uneventfully.
The water calms down and I scan where we're headed from my normal back of the boat steering position as I normally do. At this point the water is only about 2 1/2 feet deep but smooth as glass. Ok no problem and say to my mother.
"Well ma, You having fun. She jokingly said "no" and we all kinda chucked.
I do another quick scan of the water and we're looking good.
So I look down to re bait and all of a sudden BAM! we hit a rock and spin sideways.
Near as I can figure. my mother panics and shifts too far. I try to counter but its too late. Over we go
Amazingly everyone thought to grab onto something as we were headed over and I only had to stumble my way over some rocks to retrieve one of my paddles and grab the now completely swamped canoe while I told them to stay where they were.
Now the scene is this.
My wife has the cooler. and a fishing pole.
My mom grabbed a paddle and a bag of garbage we had left over from some sandwiches and soda we had.
and my daughter had grabbed one of the life jackets (she was wearing hers at my insistence)
I take both my tackle boxes and the other paddle, life jacket and fishing pole (which amazingly enough stayed in the canoe the entire time and distribute it amongst them to hold onto while I try to un flood the canoe.
My wife then decides to come try and help me with the canoe which she promptly grabbed and pulled it so the current was hitting it broad side just as I'm lifting and quickly flipping it to try to get most of the water out.
Needless to say this is not the way to do it. the canoe promptly fills back up with water and now I'm trying to fight a canoe filled with water facing sideways from being ripped from my hands.
Now lifting and emptying a 17 foot long plastic canoe filled with water isn't easy to begin with let alone when it re floods and is being hit broadside by the nonstop current of a river.
So I thanked her for the help I didn't want (using colorful metaphors) and asked her to go back to where I told her to stay to begin with.
Ok So I manage to flip and empty about 95% of the water out of it.
we reload the canoe My wife lifts the fishing pole up to put it back in the canoe and low and behold. There is a 9 inch small mouth on the hook!
At this point we're now laughing at what happened.
And I ask my mother "We'll, NOW are you having fun?"
We all laugh get back in and continue on our merry way.
We decide we will just paddle the rest of the way down because I didn't feel like untangling the mess both poles had become.
More rapids. A few nice ones with deep water and just enough whitecap to blow over and make a splash in the boat.
Fun for kids and grandmas.
Eventually I recognize we are approaching the end of the trip and with it the last and best set of rapids.
the Grande Fanali as it were.
Now his set of rapids are rougher then all the previous ones. The water is deep and fast. I've gone over then for fun just wearing a life vest and I cant touch bottom there most of the time unless the river is REALLY low.
And I've actually dragged my canoe along the shoreline upstream of them just to go through them again. So I've been through these suckers ALOT.
I know how to go through them. and the best way to go through them. Which is keep the boat pointed down stream and right down the middle.
Always makes for a great ride going down the dips of about a foot drops by about 4 feet wide with little more then an occasional wave splashing over the bow.. GREAT fun..
So I know what to expect. Even in really high fast water. I've been through em so.. I know what to expect.
So I tell everyone. Don't do anything. just let me steer. You just enjoy the ride
Ok so we enter the Kunkell rapids and everything is fine.
The rapids are a but more drastic then I usually see even thought he water isn't much higher then it is normally with the drop being more of around 2-2-1/2 feet but I see no reason to change strategy and cant now even if I wanted to. We are committed
Continued.....
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Splash one drop, Splash 2 drops. Cool. PERFECT. This is gonna be fun!
All of a sudden I feel someone shifting their weight around and the boat starts rocking. Then someone else is doing it and its getting worse.
Now I end up having to try to counter to keep us from going over and BIG waves are now splashing in over the side al the time Im yelling for them to stop.but no. back and forth like a seesaw we go. shifting back and forth. Waves coming in.
At one point I thought I was going to have it managed and I maneuver the canoe to the nose down river position it was starting to vary from.
then again someone's shifting their weight. and all over it happens again. All the while the canoe is filling up with more and more water. Now its half full with water and getting worse. and she shifting has screwed up the steering so bad we are now sideways against the current and still they are shifting back and forth
My daughter yells out several times "We're sinking"
We are almost through it all and someone shifts to the left causing a large wave to completely swamp the boat.
And it is now leaving us...literally heading down stream ahead of us as it had turned sideways one last time and we floated out of the canoe.
My daughter looks over at me and I yell to them. "swim downstream for shore.
While I swam after the canoe.
At this point we're out of the rapids but the water is still over my head and moving pretty fast.
I go after the canoe and I see one of my tackle boxes floating out ahead of it. So having easily reached the canoe I go after the tackle box. figuring Ill grab that. then the canoe.
I am literally within inches of having it and I'm just reaching for it when. Gurgle gurgle gurgle. it arse end ups and sinks like the frikken Titanic.
Ok thats gone. I see a paddle floating by and grab that then looking up stream I see the mostly submerged canoe. But. the water is still too deep to stand and we are both moving at the same speed.
So while holding the paddle I start to side stroke up stream to the canoe.
Heh, you dont make much headway swimming using only your legs and just one arm against a river going upstream. and you get tired REALLY quickly. Particularly when your wearing cutoff Jeans just above the knee and a tee shirt which tend to weigh you down and slow down your movements.
All the while NOT wearing a life vest
But I managed to slow myself enough for the canoe to catch up with me.
I Grab the vest thats inside in one hand and the canoe with the other and we just float downstream a bit.
I look upstream at this site
The current was too strong and the water too deep or any of the others to reach shore instead they all decided to follow me.
My mother who had donned my fisherman's life vest after the last spill was holding a fishing pole and floating with my daughter. and my wife had donned a vest as soon as it started getting rough and we started taking on water.
All three were holding onto the large cooler which proved to be surprisingly buoyant as it stood out of the water higher then any of us by a full foot.
Finally. exhausted I reach a small area where I can stand and the water is only a little lower then chest deep.
.I toss the life vest around my neck and try to flip the canoe but the water is still too deep to do it effectively. but it now gives me something to hold onto and rest.
Our destination well in sight but on the other side of the river.
My mother, against my wishes decides to stay and hang out with me to help me swim the canoe over rather then go with my wife and daughter to other shore
We end up back in deep water again. both of us holding onto the canoe and my mother laughs and asks.
"Did you take a life insurance policy out on me the other day?"
I say "no" and she laughs again and says "idiot, if your going to try to drown me you should have at least taken a policy out on me first."
So were floating down river holding onto the canoe laughing at my daughter with "We're sinking" proclamation and everything that just happened.
My wife and daughter make it to the other side with relative ease.
but we're or I should say I am still struggling to swim the canoe, now with the added weight of my mother to the other side.
I know that all I have to do is drift and I will hit VERY shallow water. but that will take us well past where I want to be and would mean having to get the canoe back upstream again.
I also know that if I can get us over to the left more there is a shallow area about 10 feet wide before it drops back to deep water again. But in that deep water the current circles around back towards shore here I want to be and where I normally get out.
the trick is in getting there.
So I'm kicking and kicking the canoe over. Finally I reach the shallows where I can empty the canoe more and get my mother back in the boat.
But not myself. without flipping it again. But moving it with her in the canoe is a lot easier then with her outside of it.
To make an already long story a little shorter. Eventually I swim the canoe into the back current and into shore.
I get out and my legs feel as if they have 50 pounds of lead weights attached to each of them they are so tired.
We take stock.
Saved. 3 life vests. Both paddles. 1 fishing pole and the cooler.
(only my life was ever really in danger)
Lost. My wife's "Rutgers" cap and my daughters net she was going to use to try to catch minnows
One almost brand new Medium tackle Shakespeare Spinning reel and rod only worth about $45 but I loved it. Frikken thing worked GREAT and I could cast it with almost surgical precision
Both my tackle boxes 1 large about 20" long by about 10 "wide by about 10" tall
And small one same length and with dimensions and about 2" high BOTH loaded with all my gear, hooks lures, buck knife Hemostats. The works.
I primarily fish for Bass so if you've ever seen a typical Bass fisherman's tackle box you know its loaded with just about everything and anything that can even remotely be used for fishing.
Someone is gonna get themselves a hell of alot of nice gear.
Me. I needed(Wanted) a new box anyway
But I wasnt planning in replacing my whole shebang LOL
Anyway. Fun trip. Even with the mishaps.
Nobody is any the worse for wear and nothing was hurt except my pride
I'm never gonna live down flipping the canoe with my brother-in-law though who is my usual fishing & canoeing partner LOL
Weird thing.
Though the entire thing. I didn't loose my glasses in spite of going underwater a few times. And I didn't loose my hat.
Always expect the unexpected. Even from an old friend
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Heh, nice AAR. Reminds me of the experience that taught me to stop driving motorboats while drunk/stoned (I flipped one upside down at full speed).
On a serious note, that incident turned me into a sober boat captain because its the incident that taught me a good friend didn't know how to swim. Only luck saved his ass. I had swum almost all the way to shore when the third person in the party yelled to me that Gordon was drowning.
It was almost comical - he was out there by the boat doing the old cartoon thing (going under, then back up raising his hand, I swear with one more finger up each time!).
When I got back out there, he started trying to climb on top of me. I remembered that Boy Scout Lifesaving merit badge study lesson that warned me of this, and the technique taught - threaten to cold **** the drownee if they don't stop trying to grab you, then do it if they don't listen. He and I were lucky, he listened (Gordon's nickname is Rocky, for a reason :))
I laugh about it now, but it was literally a sobering experience. I never let anyone in a boat that I am captain of now without either knowing they are a *strong* swimmer, or requiring that they wear a vest.
I'm glad your family is safe.
Oh, I recovered that boat and all my fishing tackle, from fifteen foot deep water. That is a story in itself ;)
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Great story!
I bet that “someone” who was shifting their weight was the bit of water in the boat that was shifting around. Flooded canoes can be nearly impossible to keep level.
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ya once you flood a canoe it's better to sit on the hull directly and not in the seats until you get to the river bank and can flip the thing to drain ALL the water out.
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you should send this story into reader's digest Dred, its a good read. funny too.
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Funny story. But apparently nobody taught you nuttin about canoeing :)
First, tie everything to the canoe except yourself, passengers, and the paddles. *duh* ;)
Second, the way to empty a filled canoe when you can't stand up is to get it upright, and then go to the very end. Front or back doesn't matter unless you have a canoe with a flat chopped stern, in which case use the stern. Try to climb up onto the end, pushing it as low as possible. This will let the far end climb up out of the water. Yea all the water ends up running out of your canoe right into your face, but you can get at least half to two thirds of the water out with this method.
That's also how you climb back in... Over the end instead of over the side. If you can't do this, you're too fat and should exercise more :)
Keep one extra lightweight paddle securely tied or clipped somewhere inside the canoe.
If you require glasses to see, use a strap to keep them on your head when you go overboard, otherwise you are more likely to find yourself out in the water and not able to see well enough to save yourself.
I've used these techniques many times on boy scout canoe trips and it all works like a champ.
Also, life jackets... pretty much mandatory for everyone, all the time. One slip and a bump on the head against the boat/canoe/rocks and even an expert swimmer is headed for the bottom. Spend a little bit of money on ones that fit well and you won't mind them so much.
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Glad everyone's okay. Very interesting storyteller too.:)
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Thought my ISP had slipped to Argosy or Outdoor Life magazines. Enlightening and entertaining story, glad everything worked out okay except for your tackle loss.
Brings back some fond memories of canoeing and tubing on the Rappahannock in Virginia. One thing about rivers -- you can never trust them. They constantly change.
Same for the seashore. That leaves lakes. Canoeing, fishing, sailing, windsurfing. Good ol' trustworthy lakes, unless you just can't bear to leave and get caught in a storm.
But that's another story.
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Originally posted by eagl
Funny story. But apparently nobody taught you nuttin about canoeing :)
First, tie everything to the canoe except yourself, passengers, and the paddles. *duh* ;)
Second, the way to empty a filled canoe when you can't stand up is to get it upright, and then go to the very end. Front or back doesn't matter unless you have a canoe with a flat chopped stern, in which case use the stern. Try to climb up onto the end, pushing it as low as possible. This will let the far end climb up out of the water. Yea all the water ends up running out of your canoe right into your face, but you can get at least half to two thirds of the water out with this method.
That's also how you climb back in... Over the end instead of over the side. If you can't do this, you're too fat and should exercise more :)
Keep one extra lightweight paddle securely tied or clipped somewhere inside the canoe.
If you require glasses to see, use a strap to keep them on your head when you go overboard, otherwise you are more likely to find yourself out in the water and not able to see well enough to save yourself.
I've used these techniques many times on boy scout canoe trips and it all works like a champ.
Also, life jackets... pretty much mandatory for everyone, all the time. One slip and a bump on the head against the boat/canoe/rocks and even an expert swimmer is headed for the bottom. Spend a little bit of money on ones that fit well and you won't mind them so much.
Thanks everyone for the comments
LOL Obviously you have never tried that technique on my canoe.
Remember this is a 17' coleman plastic canoe. not aluminum or fiberglass.
Empty this thing weighs quite a bit
Actually I did try that. the arse end went downa little but the bow didnt raise enough to get any water out. This sombish was FILLED.
And then I was too tired from trying to swim upstream to try to climb up onto anything.
I had often thought about teathering the things to the canoe.
but my primary concern was that in the event such an instance happened as it did. Someone might inadvertantly get tangled up in the teather.
Which in a set of rapids wouldnt not be a good thing.
In hindsight. Looking back at this particular set of rapids. And the way the canoe rolled out from underneith us. I am still convinced I was better off without having any kinds of lines for anyone to get caught up in.
The mistake I made as far as my gear is concerned was not placing my new pole under the crossmembers as I normally do.
Instead it was still standing partially upright leaning against the side.
Mistake #2 was in wearing cutoff jeans and a that were cut a bit longer for style (literally a hair above the knee) then for movement when wet. and a T-shirt.
Both I found provided added resistance to and partially restricted my movements trying to swim.
Mistake #3 was in trying to swim after my tacklebox while still in a fast current. Particulalrly in light of mistake #2.
I got tired.. real tired. and in a hurry too
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The biggest mistake was not wearing your life preserver.
I used to surf my kayak on the waves of Oahu while I lived there. Reboarding a 19’ kayak in waves that are big enough to flip it end over end can be tough. Sometimes I’d try over and over and would be worn out by the time I got on and through the next wave. Without a life preserver I’d have drown long ago.